WIREDGOV

Extra National Lottery support is to cover applications expected ahead of the fund being paused on Thursday.

Our Community Emergency Fund is being topped up by an additional £15 million of National Lottery money to meet the demand from organisations delivering community sport and physical activity.

The initial £20m fund, also supported by The National Lottery, was launched at the end of March as a rapid response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the ensuing social distancing guidelines and the stay at home order, and their impact on sport and exercise.

It provides awards from £300-£10,000 to clubs and community organisations to help them with their immediate financial distress, and was part of an up to £195m package of support from us to the sport and physical activity sector, with this additional £15m taking the package up to £210m.

The fund, which is part of £600m The National Lottery is committing across the UK during the coronavirus crisis, has already helped thousands of organisations by covering costs such as rent, insurance and utility bills – as well as some staff costs and maintenance of pitches and facilities.

This extra £15m is available immediately to help meet the demand of the existing applications and those likely to be submitted in the coming days.

The fund will then be paused at 11.59pm on Thursday 14 May, to enable assessors to process all remaining applications as soon as possible.

We’ll then reflect on the fund’s impact and consider what ongoing support clubs and community groups will need as restrictions are eased in the future.

More than 8,000 submissions have been made to the fund so far, with more than £16.7m having been awarded and more than 100 staff from across our organisation involved in assessing the applications as quickly as possible.

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