AN Oxfordshire organisation has been ‘overwhelmed’ with the amount of applications it has received from local charities seeking funding help during lockdown. Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF) has distributed more than £730,000 in grants during 2020, with a focus on helping charities and community organisations across the county reach all neighbourhoods and families in need. It set up its Community Resilience Fund in April 2020 in response to the pandemic and has funded 140 projects enabling food distribution, maintaining support and advice services, and moving essential work online. But there is still a pressing need for help with more than £400,000 in applications received in less than a week in early January after the third lockdown was announced.
A NEW project funded by public donations could help bring an end to rough sleeping in Oxfordshire. During the pandemic, councils and voluntary organisations in Oxfordshire were moved to find temporary accommodation for over 200 people who were sleeping rough. These people were safer, and were then able to get help with rebuilding their lives. The Oxfordshire Homeless Movement which co-ordinates efforts to help the homeless thinks they could end homelessness in Oxfordshire as a result of this work, which relies on a housing first approach . But due to the uncertainty over how long cash will last to help rough sleepers there is a risk some will return to the streets.
Help the Homeless
A group of people with lived experience of homelessness meet each month to help others experiencing rough sleeping GIVING people who have a lived experience of homelessness voice in local decision-making is the new year s resolution of a group working in Oxford. The Oxfordshire Homeless Movement, a network of organisations trying to end street sleeping, is running its third Christmas appeal, with backing from the Oxford Mail. While a lot of the cash raised will go towards frontline services to help the homeless, one of the projects it will also help is something called the Lived Experience Advisory Forum.
Council gives £40,000 to charities hit by pandemic );
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GRANTS worth nearly £40,000 have been awarded to charities in Henley as they try to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Henley Town Council received applications from seven charities requesting a total of £66,194 but had a budget of less than two-thirds of that to allocate.
Members of the finance strategy and management committee agreed the awards after receiving presentations at a virtual meeting.
A total of £5,000 will go to Riverside Counselling, which provides affordable counselling and psychotherapy to adults and young people.
The charity, which is based in Northfield End, had asked for twice that amount.
GROUPS working to tackle homelessness are trying to make sure winter support and Christmas dinners are still available despite the pandemic. During the winter, Oxford City Council usually activates its severe weather emergency protocol (SWEP) to get rough sleepers into temporary shelter. And at the same time, charities usually offer extra food for rough sleepers or company for the lonely. But the pandemic has made this more difficult in 2020. The Oxfordshire Homeless Movement is co-ordinating efforts between these groups to tackle rough sleeping while navigating the difficulties of the coronavirus. The movement is also appealing for public help to continue its work.