Emergency help for those worse affected by coronavirus

6 Apr 2020 03:03 PM

Key support services get £8 million boost.

People most at risk from the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak are to receive further support following emergency investment in crucial services.

Charities Scottish Women’s Aid, Social Bite and other key partners will share up to £8 million to provide an emergency response and ensure services can react to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Disadvantaged groups facing hardships such as homelessness, food insecurity or social isolation and loneliness are among those to benefit from services such as:

emergency accommodation in Glasgow and Edinburgh
the provision of food and essential supplies to vulnerable groups in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen
public health information translated into British Sign Language (BSL) and the creation of an easy, one-stop shop approach for BSL users
online and telephone support for both older people and young people, and more isolated members of the LGBT community, to improve mental resilience and wellbeing

This investment is part of the Scottish Government’s wider £350 million Communities Funding to help those most affected by the pandemic.

Welcoming the projects, Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell yesterday said:

“We are facing an unprecedented situation that requires a practical response – at scale and pace – to help people most at risk in our community. We must do all that we can to protect the health, welfare and wellbeing of the people of Scotland.

“These significant national investments are helping to strengthen the support available to individuals and ensuring that key services are available for those most in need.

“We are continuing to work with partners, including community organisations to ensure funding reaches those best placed to provide support.”

Background

The £350 million Communities Funding was announced by Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell on 18 March 2020.

Since it was announced more than £100 million of new support has been delivered to local authorities to assist their efforts. This includes £50 million in hardship funding, £22 million to bolster the Scottish Welfare Fund, and £30 million from the Food Fund.

An additional £23 million is held in reserve for the Scottish Welfare Fund and will be targeted to where it is most needed. £50 million is also in reserve to meet increased demand for Scottish Social Security and support through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

The Third Sector Resilience Fund, worth £20 million, launched on the 25th of March.

A full list of the projects to be awarded a share of the funding can be found below:

Organisation	Amount	Brief outline of project
Young Scot	£46,992	Young Scot will deliver Covid-19 information and social media support for young people.
Who Cares?	£175,132	Support for the Care Experienced Community.
British Deaf Association Scotland	£26,212.50	Public health information to be translated into British Sign Language (BSL) and for there to be an easy, one-stop shop approach for BSL users to find official information
Scottish Women’s Aid	£1,350,000	Deliver increased provision of support
Rape Crisis Scotland	£226,309	Deliver increased provision of support
Child Poverty Action Group	£104,877	Ensure the most up to date advice and support is disseminated to advisors to support families in need through increasing staffing levels; provision of IT equipment to facilitate the move to home provision of support; development and delivery of webinars to a group of front line advisors; subscription costs, development of benefit advice bulletins and increased advice line capacity.
One Parent Families Scotland	£100,000	Deliver increased provision of support
Simon Community	£296,000	Securing emergency accommodation in Glasgow and Edinburgh to support vulnerable people through the COVID 19 Crisis. Their actual funding proposal shows this is for two months
Simon Community	£21,290	Extra accommodation in Edinburgh
Glasgow Night Shelter	£153,500	Destitute Asylum Seekers – Emergency accommodation response for destitute asylum seekers
Age Scotland	£80,000	Helpline costs
Gypsy/Travellers - Various Partners	£73,600	Deliver increased provision of support
LGBT Health and Wellbeing	£10,000	Provide telephone support to more isolated members of the LGBT community, with a particular focus on older LGBT people and those experiencing digital exclusion, and expand their LGBT Helpline Scotland from 2 to 4 days per week.
LGBT Youth Scotland	£41,500	To improve support for the LGBTI community in Scotland, particularly those aged 13-25, throughout Covid-19 through accelerating development of a Digital Youth Work platform, including learning hub to offer improved support, help them develop greater resilience in relation to their mental health and in time, new skills and strengths.
BEMIS	£56,100	To provide access to essential food to diverse minority ethnic communities across Scotland through a network of organisations via a Small Grant Sustenance Fund and emergency grant relief to individuals and families or those supporting them directly such as foodbanks.
Befriending Network	£6,333	Additional staff costs to support befriending organisations
Glasgow Disability Alliance	£85,800	Additional staff costs for telephony and online support
Equality Network	£3,932.82	To provide Zoom accounts to allow regional LGBT groups to stay in contact, many of whom have members who are socially isolated for a number of reasons
SCoJeC	£4,650	The proposal has 3 parts: 1. Connecting with Jewish Communities (£2,750), 2. Crisis Hardship Fund (£2,000) and 3. Providing food packages urgently for Passover (£1,900) totalling £6,650.
DeafBlind Scotland	£30,000	To produce information in Braille, Moon, XXL print, BSL videos or audio CDs; increase access to advocacy and advice staff to help people understand what support is available to access grants and support; and to increase home visits for Deafblind people who don’t have self-directed support.
Social Bite	£500,000	The provision of food and essential supplies to vulnerable groups in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen through the Covid-19 crisis
FareShare	£500,000	To purchase and distribute ambient food
Cash For Kids	£500,000	To give vouchers/cards to families for essential items including food and fuel
Food Train	£241,515	To respond to the increased demand for older people seeking home delivery of food
Coalition with support from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)	Up to £3,000,000	The Scottish Government is working with SCVO as part of a coalition programme to ensure funding gets to community groups
Intercultural Youth Scotland	£22,296	Provides for a range of activity to support young minority ethnic people, particularly around mental health support and careers support
Barnardo’s	£178,000	To provide direct support to 2,100 children, young people and families with an estimated distribution of £23k per week, plus £40k across the period to support capital spend (e.g. laptops/phones/activity packs to support school work and reduce social isolation). Barnardos’ is working with Action for Children to ensure a cohesive approach is taken across Scotland.
Action for Children	£202,000	To support over 20,000 children and young people, including disabled children, care experienced young people, and young carers, and their families, through a two-tier response: i. Welfare Response and Emergency Fund which will distribute funding support to young people and families and ii. Wellbeing Response and Safeguarding Capacity which will increase the organisation’s capacity to protect children, young people and families at greatest risk who may be more isolated than ever due to the current situation.

Total: £8,036,039.32