Wiltshire Community Foundation coronavirus fund helps groups tackling hunger, isolation, and mental health

More than £136,000 has been given to voluntary groups tackling the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic by Wiltshire Community Foundation.

Its Wiltshire and Swindon Coronavirus Response Fund has raised more than £260,000 in less than three weeks. The money has been given by the public, charity trusts, private donors and by the National Emergencies Trust, which is distributing its £25 million Coronavirus Fund through the UK’s 46 community foundations.

In Wiltshire, the community foundation has already awarded more than 30 groups with money to tackle hunger, isolation, mental health support and home education.

Among the latest recipients is Swindon Women’s Aid, which has been given £10,000 to help pay for advisors who are helping keep women safe.

Director Emma Rawlings said a third of her ten Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors are funded by a contract with Swindon Borough Council but money for the remainder usually comes from fundraising.

“We are not doing any fundraising and our charity shop is closed so it is lovely to get the money, especially when we know the calls are going to go up. I am anticipating we are going to see a lot more over the next couple of weeks,” said Emma.

She said the pressure of being at home with a partner, often in small, cramped homes, means underlying tensions could escalate.

“If you have been living in forced isolation with your partner and there are cracks in the relationship living with someone 24/7 will be alike a pressure cooker bursting. It can escalate and manifest itself into coercive control, sexual abuse or physical abuse,” she said.

The RWB Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group in Royal Wootton Bassett has been given £2,500 to help elderly and vulnerable isolated people in the town by delivering food boxes, collect prescriptions and check on welfare.

The group, which is receiving 20 new calls each day, is supporting more than 500 people.

Devizes and District Foodbank, which has been given £3,250 to fund extra hours for overworked staff.

Chairman of trustees Jasper Selwyn said the foodbank, based at Devizes Community Hospital, has seen demand double and donations increase as well as volunteer numbers fall because of self-isolation.

He said: “That has put a lot of pressure on our paid staff because they are both part-time working 12 hours a week and both have been rushed off their feet. Their hours have doubled, and we wanted to pay them for that. We don’t have the funds, but the community foundation has given us the money, which is brilliant.”

The Devizes Covid-19 Response group, which is co-ordinating 260 volunteers delivering food and collecting prescriptions for vulnerable people, has been given £3,000 to fund some staffing, IT support and food.

Trustee Keith Brindle said the grant has been essential. “The money is being used to enable us to deliver support for vulnerable people in Devizes. In the three weeks since we’ve been going, we’ve had well over 1,000 calls through to the call centre in the Town Hall for food deliveries, medication and essential errands and the grant we’ve had from Wiltshire Community Foundation has enabled that to happen.”

St Paul’s Church in Salisbury, has been given £5,000 to help its efforts to support dozens of vulnerable people in isolation.

More than 40 volunteers are delivering food parcels, doing shopping and collecting prescriptions for dozens of isolated and vulnerable people, including victims of domestic abuse and mental health sufferers.

Youth charity Inner Flame has been given £5,000 to run online and mentoring sessions with more than 50 unemployed young people in Swindon who suffer from mental health issues.

Chief executive James Threlfall said: “The vast majority of our young people battle with depression and/or anxiety, and naturally this time will be very tough for them. Therefore, we intend to keep in regular contact with them – running both educational sessions and simply having regular, ongoing communication.”

Youth charity Trowbridge Community Area Future is delivering education and wellbeing packs to more than 50 isolated young people living in poverty or in difficult family circumstances, thanks to a £2,000 grant.

Youth and community development manager Meg Leila Aubrey said: “We have been able to continue isolated and vulnerable people within the community. Over the Easter weekend we have been able to deliver educational and wellbeing resources to all the young people who come to our youth clubs. We support people in the most disadvantaged areas of Trowbridge – Seymour, Longfield and Studley Green.

“These young people are particularly vulnerable, so we have been giving them things to do that are fun but also around self-care.”

The packs have details of a mentoring programme for the young people aged between 11 and 18 to get support. Ms Leila Aubrey said: “The lockdown has been very difficult for them, most of them will be between two homes so there are concerns about the being looked after properly.

“We are offering mentoring support through their youth workers and what we find is that we are supporting children who don’t want to get chucked out of school, so this is a very fearful time for them. They are able to talk to youth workers to help them with homework and how to manage that. The grant has made an unbelievable difference, without it we would have had to furlough staff.”

Arts Together, which works with more than 70 older people in west and north Wiltshire, has been given £2,500 to supply art project packs every week to members living in isolation.

The group usually meets every week to work on projects with professional artists, but it has had to adapt to the pandemic and is now sending out the packs instead to stay in touch with members.

Director Karolyne Fudge-Malik said: “The grant has made a huge amount of difference. Every week our members get this boost saying ‘what about doing this?’. It keeps them engaged, plus they have got their network of people to call.

“They know they are part of a community, they know they are doing something they enjoy, and they have got something to look forward to each day – it’s not just an empty day staring into nothing.”

The Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, which works closely with Wiltshire Police to install security devices in the homes of older people or vulnerable adults experiencing crime or domestic violence has been given £5,000 to fund its three van operators.

Chief executive Jennie Shaw said: “Our fundraising events for the foreseeable future have all been cancelled which has had a severe impact on our income revenue.”

Wiltshire Community Foundation interim co-chief executive Fiona Oliver said: “We continue to be inspired, but not surprised, by the generosity of people in Wiltshire and Swindon. The money that’s been donated is helping groups make an enormous difference in their communities, but we know that need is still growing and is likely to do so for some time.”

To find out how to apply for a grant or donate to the Wiltshire and Swindon Coronavirus Response Fund, go to wiltshirecf.org.uk.