Coronavirus Response Fund distributes a further £100,587 in the latest grant awards

15th May 2020

A further 24 charities have benefited from grants awarded from our Coronavirus Response Fund, totalling £100,587. This brings the total amount awarded from the Fund so far to over £645,000!

It is thanks to the generosity of local people, businesses and funding from the National Emergencies Trust Appeal that we have raised over £1.2 million to date. This is enabling us to distribute much needed funds to charities, so that they can continue to support our local communities during this challenging time.

Below are just some examples of how these grants will make a difference to the lives of people in Surrey:

Momentum Children’s Charity provides invaluable support to children and their families suffering from cancer and other life-limiting conditions. Because of the crisis, many of their face to face support services have ceased. A grant was awarded to enable remote counselling sessions for the charity to continue to deliver their services to vulnerable children and families isolating in their homes.

“We are so grateful to the Community Foundation for Surrey who have awarded us a grant to help us respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. This generous funding will go towards the provision of online counselling sessions for families and also pay for media tablets for 5 families, helping them to stay connected and access much-needed help and support from our Family Support Team.”

– Bianca Effemey, Founder and CEO, Momentum Children’s Charity

Farncombe Day Centre provides social activities and entertainment to local older people living in Farncombe, Binscombe and Ockford Ridge. A grant was awarded for their ‘Meals on Wheels’ service catering for vulnerable clients having to isolate at this time.

“Since the start of the lockdown, we have changed over from our normal in-house service to delivering meals to our user’s homes. By using our own staff and volunteers to produce and deliver the meals, we have not only been able to provide a hot lunch and pudding to many vulnerable and elderly local people each weekday, but we have also been able to stay in contact with them to keep an eye on their wellbeing and to help with other issues.”

–  E.W. Hislop, Chair of the Executive Committee, Farncombe Day Centre.

The remaining 22 grants can be found here:

  1. Citizens Advice Surrey Heath received funding to buy IT equipment such as laptops, licences and phones to enable staff to support communities who would have otherwise been isolated during lockdown
  2. College of St. Barnabas, a residential care home operating in Tandridge, received funding towards the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment to continue their services safely
  3. Disability Arts in Surrey received funding towards project costs for an online support package for their disabled and isolated clients
  4. Friends of the Elderly were awarded a grant to help isolated and elderly people safely pay for their essential shopping deliveries with the purchase of wireless card readers, which could be used safely from the residents’ doorsteps
  5. Home-Start East Surrey were awarded a contribution towards essential running costs to enable their work supporting disadvantaged families with young children
  6. Home-Start Guildford received funding towards their essential running costs to continue their support service for targeted families with at least one young child
  7. Leonard Cheshire Disability obtained funding toward the purchasing of Personal Protective Equipment for staff, specifically the charity’s local care home in Godalming
  8. New Life Church, Woking received funding towards emergency supplies for their foodbank, supporting vulnerable local people
  9. Peterson’s Fund For Children, a charity based in Elmbridge, received two grants towards the purchase of food, and specific items for children with cystic fibrosis at this time
  10. Rape Crisis Surrey and Sussex received funding for IT provision enabling secure, encrypted online counselling rooms to assist the support of rape and abuse victims
  11. Runnymede Foodbank received funding to move to a telephone triaging service of need, assisting them to distribute goods to local disadvantaged people
  12. The Samson Centre for Multiple Sclerosis received funds to provide essential online physiotherapy for sufferers of MS
  13. South West Surrey Domestic Abuse Service received funding to support children cope with feelings of isolation and emotional stress through online recovery sessions
  14. St Johns School, Holmwood’s in Dorking, received funding to support disadvantaged families through phone contact and deliveries of food, games and prescriptions
  15. St Marks Community Centre secured funding for their foodbank to meet the demand for their services to support disadvantaged people across Waverley
  16. Stopgap Dance Company in Waverley received funding to bring together children with physical disabilities and help them to learn to dance through online classes
  17. Surrey Community Action were awarded a grant towards their essential running costs to support their coordination of the Voluntary Community and Faith Sector in Surrey
  18. Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum were awarded a grant towards the salary of an employee, to offer a befriending service, that brings together people for whom English is not their first language
  19. Surrey Welfare Rights Unit received funding for essential running cost support to carry on helping individuals and other charities across Surrey with financial advice
  20. Synergy Dance Outreach received funding to create remote dance and yoga sessions for the Visually Impaired and Blind
  21. Westway Community and Well Being Centre in Tandridge received a grant towards expenses to allow them to run an outreach hub to support vulnerable and elderly residents
  22. Woking Strokeability received funding towards online exercise classes that help rehabilitate people that have suffered from strokes

 

There is still great need

Charities across Surrey have had to make major changes in how they operate as a result of the Coronavirus. This is an uncertain, challenging and often alarming time for a lot of charities and organisations. We are listening to our community and many of their key issues and concerns include significant loss of event and community fundraising income, as well as loss of self-generated income – including from the delivery of training, hiring of community buildings, café facilities and other enterprises.

We are incredibly grateful for all donations that we have received so far. However, there is a real need to sustain important organisations, so that their vital services can continue for vulnerable communities, both during and after the crisis.

If you would like to donate to the Fund, you can do so via the secure online Virgin Money Giving page and by direct bank transfer. If you would like to donate via bank transfer, please contact Laura Thurlow on 01483 478086 or email Laura@cfsurrey.org.uk.

If you are interested in applying for Coronavirus Response Funding, please read the eligibility guidelines and apply online here.