Who needs help through the coronavirus crisis?

“It is so heartening to see the local response to the coronavirus crisis. The charitable  and community organisations in Hull & in the rest of our patch are trusted by local people and they know to come to us for funding. The coronavirus fund is getting help to them right now” Harriet Johnson, Partnership Manager, Two Ridings Community Foundation

Two Ridings uses data from a range of sources, including Local Insights, to understand where its grants are most needed.

We asked Harriet, who as well as leading on the Confident Futures project in Hull & East Riding, is also chairing the weekly grant making panel for coronavirus fund grants, how needs are changing and how grants can help.

She said: Over the last month we’ve supported many food & medicine delivery projects – nearly half of the funding has supported that immediate need to feed & keep people well. Great projects like Nidderdale Plus Partnership in rural North Yorkshire, Vulcan Boxing Club in Hull and Kingfisher Trust in Bridlington.

We’re receiving over 50 applications to the fund each week and its clear things are changing. There are more requests coming in for funding to offer mental health support, relieve isolation for families and children, & support for the most marginalised who will struggle even more when social isolating. We are pleased to help groups like The RCCG Amazing Grace Chapel in Hull, Mind in Harrogate District and Cruse Bereavement Care York and North Yorkshire help their users.

But one constant group through all this and which we are keeping funding are the key community organisations who have a pivotal role in this in the local areas – whether it is distributing food and other essentials and coordinating volunteers, such as Tang Hall Community Centre in York, Springbank Community Association in Hull and The Moorlands in Goole.

But, reflecting on grants so far, we are concerned that projects working on early intervention and preventative work with young people and other projects supporting more disadvantaged communities like refugees and asylum seekers, Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic communities and those who are homeless are missing out. So we are focussing on how best to tackle this. We are keen to hear from groups working in these areas and other that feel they need funds. Choosing which projects to support is never easy so, as well as our long history of supporting grassroots organisations, we are doing more outreach than ever and we’re usig high quality research tools , like Local Insights, to reveal which communities are most vulnerable to coronavirus and make sure we don’t miss out key places.”

Get in touch with me to find out more [email protected] or visit our application page to apply for £10k or £2k grants.