Community Foundation for Calderdale's Community Resilience fund tops £110,000

The Community Resilience Fund was set up by the CFFC in a bid to offer extra funds and support to organisation on the front line.

The fund has received over £110,000 through a series of donations from local people and businesses and government grants.

Steve Duncan, CEO of the CFFC, said: “We want to say thank you for all the generous donations that have been made to the Community Resilience Fund so far.

“However, we need more to be able to carry on supporting the front line organisations in the volunteer sector in the future.

“A lot of the groups we work with survive from grant to grant.

“They provide an invaluable service and they are relying on the community to help them find the money during this difficult time.”

So far, 17 groups have been given grants, including: Archway Project, Community Transport for Calderdale, Focus4Hope, Disability Partnership Calderdale, Gathering Place at Ebeneezer Church, Noah’s Arc, Calderdale SmartMove, and Todmorden Food Drop In.

Organisations can apply for grants of up to £3,000.

Beth Currie, Fundraising and Marketing Manager for Calderdale SmartMove said: “We at Calderdale SmartMove are incredibly grateful for the support provided by the CFFC by way of the Community Resilience Fund in these unprecedented and extremely difficult times.

“As a charity, we stand to lose in the region of £20,000, providing the situation returns to normality by the beginning of July, which of course none of us can predict.

“This valuable funding will allow us to provide emergency crisis items for people who are in desperate need.

“We have seen a sharp rise in vulnerable individuals seeking our services over the last three weeks and we anticipate this to worsen to correlate with the large scale spread of the virus.

“We have also seen a rise in people fleeing from abusive relationships and last week alone we had to purchase two emergency beds for individuals fleeing from domestic violence.

“This funding will support us to continue to do this for however long is necessary.

“We want to thank the CFFC, particularly Steve Duncan and Rob Billson for their unwavering support and hard work during this most unsettling time, not only for ourselves but for the entire charity sector across Calderdale.”

Mr Duncan commented: “This is where the Community Foundation can really come into its own.

“At the end of the day we are here to support the community and the virus affects everybody, not just the elderly.

“With self isolation and social distancing now in place, we want people to know that support is available and that the community does care about their well being.

“The organisations can apply for grants and we’ll let them get on with spending the money however they see fit, as they know better than anyone what is happening on the front line.”

The CFFC has stated that they are continuing their work to help those affected by the Storm Ciara and Dennis flooding earlier this year.Businesses and households can apply to receive a grant from the CFFC’s £300,000 flood relief fund.

Rachel Oates, Marketing Manager for the CFFC, added: “A lot of people think of the Community Foundation for Calderdale as a flood charity. Although we have helped out during the floods, we do so much more than that.

“We‘ve been around for more than thirty years, and each year we give out more than a million pounds in grants to a wide range of organisations.

“That’s why we are so quick to respond, we support these front line organisations everyday, not just when there’s a flood or pandemic.”

To donate to the Community Resilience fund click here.

Alternatively, contact CEO Steve Duncan at [email protected] or telephone 01422 438737.