Watford’s local charities and voluntary and community sector organisations received a total of £50,000 last year from Elected Mayor Peter Taylor’s Small Grant Fund, to help meet the needs of people and communities as they tackled the coronavirus outbreak.
Published: 02 March 2021
The funding was adapted into an emergency support fund in response to the pandemic and was distributed to local frontline charities who were getting emergency food to those in need, providing support for the homeless and offering practical help to vulnerable people, including those facing the strain of isolation. The following organisations received funding:
- Watford Mencap – independent charity for people with learning disabilities and their families and carers. They received £2,960 to create four activity boxes.
- Small Acts of Kindness – awarded £3,000 to provide an additional 120 Warm in Winter Gift Bags to be delivered to elderly, vulnerable residents in Watford.
- Watford Workshop – were awarded £2,400 to help with general running costs so that they were able to keep their vulnerable workforce employed as well as continue to support their service users either at the workshop or remotely.
- New Hope – awarded £3,000 funding to provide meals to individuals rough sleeping or experiencing homelessness.
- Watford Hindu Group – awarded £2,754 to help provide and deliver community members with food and grocery supplies.
Elected Mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor said “One of the great things about my job is being able to meet so many of our wonderful community and voluntary groups. These groups do so much for our town and they make a real difference to people’s lives. What always strikes me is the dedication and commitment of everyone involved in our voluntary sector and their willingness to go the extra mile to help people. In 2020-21 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the fund was quickly adapted so that it could be used as an emergency support fund and was able to provide funding to 20 local voluntary and community organisations and charities.”
Ronnie Jacob, Finance Trustee, Watford Workshop said “The impact of the council’s grant was significant. It has helped maintain stability at a time when the charity’s expenditure has been exceeding its income by a considerable amount, allowing us to remain open, support our service users both remotely and on the premises, and thereby alleviate many of the issues that Covid-19 and lockdown caused for them.”
Joe Meehan, Fundraising and Communications Officer, New Hope said “The grant from the Mayor’s Small Grants Fund allowed us to focus our existing resources on ensuring we could deliver the highest level of service while operating for an additional day per week and several hours longer than usual. We are incredibly grateful that The Mayor’s Small Grants Fund chose to support our work through the most challenging part of the pandemic so far.
For more information, please visit www.watford.gov.uk/smallgrants.
Watford Workshop – Photos before Pandemic
