The National Lottery Community Fund has announced it is working alongside five expert partnerships to ensure almost £45m of National Lottery funding reaches communities most vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19.
The move is part of The National Lottery Community Fund’s COVID-19 emergency response and means it will benefit from the partnerships’ collective expertise and networks, to ensure funding is distributed to even more communities.
The partnerships will focus on supporting organisations that work with those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. This includes BAME and other communities experiencing health inequalities and people experiencing homelessness. There will also be a focus on getting support to social enterprises.
Grants to the sector partnerships range from £5 million up to almost £20 million. The COVID-19 Social Enterprise Support Fund Partnership will use almost £20 million to provide grants to social enterprise organisations that are best-placed to support local, vulnerable communities in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Partnerships receiving £5 million include The Barrow Cadbury Trust Covid-19 Support Fund for small and medium organisations supporting migrants and refugees, and Homeless Link, to support small and medium sized homelessness charities and help them adapt their service delivery to respond to the crisis.
You can find more information about eligibility, how to apply, and further details, on each partnership’s web page:
- Specialist social welfare legal advice organisations who provide advice and support to people who are pushed into crisis can consider the Community Justice Fund
- Small and medium homelessness charities can consider the Covid-19 Homelessness Response Fund
- Community-led organisations who are facing financial difficulties caused by COVID-19 can apply to the COVID-19 Community Led Organisations Recovery Scheme. The scheme is aimed at organisations delivering services in their local community with an emphasis on BAME-led businesses
- Social enterprises can consider the COVID-19 Social Enterprise Support Fund partnership (deadline for round 1: 1pm July 20th)
- Specialist small medium voluntary sector groups supporting migrant and refugees can consider the Barrow Cadbury Trust Covid-19 Support Fund
Further details and signposting can be seen on The National Lottery Community Fund’s website. Applications and questions about funding through one of the partnerships should be made directly with the relevant partner.