Volunteers support vulnerable people in Epping Forest
12th January 2021
A £10,000 grant from us has helped Voluntary Action Epping Forest (VAEF) to support the most vulnerable people across the Epping Forest District during the COVID-19 crisis.
The funding made a world of difference to VAEF as they have been able to adapt their projects to support the elderly, people with learning disabilities and those on benefits.
Jacqui Foile from VAEF said: “Using our volunteer expertise we rapidly set up a district-wide community response to the coronavirus outbreak.
“We have been co-ordinating volunteers and businesses to support those in crisis. Our services include telephone support, shopping, collecting prescriptions and providing welfare support and advice.
“We have incurred additional staff salary costs and running costs but have a reduced income due to cancelled fundraising events, loss of chargeable services and donations. The grant from ECF has helped us to meet the extra costs and keep our services going.”
Maggie Gilchrist, Volunteer Centre Coordinator for VAEF, said that volunteers have pulled out all the stops to help those in need.
Highlighting examples of the help given Maggie said : “During the COVID pandemic one of our volunteers, Kelly, put herself forward to remotely support the clients from the VAEF Community Clubs, as they could not run because this group of residents are very clinically vulnerable.
“She calls 12 clients twice a week to do welfare checks, ensuring the clients are getting their shopping and prescriptions as well as encouraging them to do gentle exercise and help them feel less lonely.
“Kelly took on new COVID clients too, one who was a near neighbour who had no living family or friends left. Kelly went above and beyond to support this resident. She was honoured when this resident asked her to be in her support bubble. Kelly always meets up maintaining social distance and going above government guidance.”
Maggie highlighted two other volunteers, Phyl and Peter, who were also keen to make some contribution towards supporting those most affected and threatened by this unprecedented situation.
“Phyl and Peter wanted to work through an established community group and VAEF seemed to fit the bill. As they both already had current DBS checks, they were quickly allocated a local family to support who were unable to shop for themselves.
“We also made contact with the local pharmacy and offered to deliver prescription medicines to those who had been instructed to isolate and shield themselves. To date, Peter and Phyl have delivered over a staggering 1,300 prescriptions to their village residents and continue to deliver more every day.”
VAEF, an independent charity, has been the backbone of community work in Epping Forest since it was set up 1993 and will continue to give as much support as possible to people in need, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you are an Essex voluntary organisation in need of funding, click here.
Leave a lasting legacy
6th January 2021
Leaving a legacy to us in your will is one way of supporting your local community.
This year, we received a generous bequest from Shirley Martin and we look forward to keeping her memory alive through the grants we award.
Shirley was born on 27 December 1932 in Ilford, Essex, the second child to Stanley and Ivy Ingleton.
After attending the Ursuline Convent in Ilford, Berkhamsted School for Girls and St. James Secretarial College in London Shirley’s first job was working for the Festival of Britain Office in Colchester. She subsequently joined the family Wine and Spirit business in Ilford, together with her brother Kenneth, working for their Father. When he died in 1961 the business moved to new premises in Maldon. Shirley became a director and company secretary and continued to work until she retired in 1992.
Shirley met and married Francis Martin in 1963. They bought a home in Colchester where they lived happily until his untimely death in 1982. She continued to live there until just before her death on 28 December 2018.
As a young girl Shirley was a keen tennis player and was shortlisted for Junior Wimbledon. Wimbledon Fortnight was a “must” in her life and she followed tennis enthusiastically. Her other great joy was music and she was an accomplished pianist.
In later life she was an enthusiastic concert goer, being a strong supporter of The Snape Maltings and St. Botolph’s in Colchester. For many years she had season tickets for the English National Opera and The Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She studied music theory, composers and compositions and when at home listened avidly to her many classical CD’s.
Other interests included horse racing – she was part owner of two racehorses for a time – while she also enjoyed sports cars, travel and good food. In short, a veritable Renaissance woman.
For more information on how to set up your own fund as part of your legacy, please click here.
Small community group makes a big difference
4th December 2020
Please note: this group photo was taken prior to COVID-19.
We were pleased to help Open Door Loughton become established two years ago. Now a further grant of £500 has been awarded to the group from our Essex Coronavirus Response and Recovery Programme.
The organisation has proved to be a lifeline for adults of all ages by offering them vital support following their discharge from an acute mental health ward.
The funding has been welcomed by Paula Wilson, a retired headteacher who set up the group to fill a gap after a similar local organisation closed down. Paula knew from first-hand experience how much such a service was needed, because she had seen how it had helped her daughter.
“The grant from ECF has enabled our group to keep going through these challenging times,” said Paula. “It has paid for the hire of the church hall where we meet and, under the Coronavirus regulations, we have an exemption which allows us to have meetings of up to 15 people.
“We can continue to offer the basic friendship and support that people need so much when they are discharged from a mental health unit. They find it hard to settle back into the community and may feel very much on their own.
“The value of our group has been recognised by a consultant psychiatrist who said that the improvements he could see in people who had been inpatients was amazing. The members of the group are so supportive of each other and they can enjoy social interaction and activities in a safe place, with people around them who understand mental health problems.”
One member of the group, Steph, said: “I have really found it to be a lifeline. When people are discharged from a mental health ward, they often don’t have access to ongoing care. Coming to the club means that there is a place where you can socialise and not feel isolated. It is a place where you can speak openly and know that you are not going to be judged. For 13 years, since I was 17, I used to self harm, but I will soon reach the milestone of being harm free for two years.
“After a lot of upheaval in my life I am much more positive, and I was recently able give a talk about self-harm. Afterwards a few people came up to me and said they had their own experiences of self harm but had never told anyone. It was good for them to know that someone understood the vicious cycle of self¬ harm and, if what I am doing helps at least one person to be more sympathetic, then it is worthwhile.”
All the members of the group are looking forward to being able to expand and develop its activities, including healthy cooking sessions which had to stop because of the Coronavirus restrictions.
Open Door Loughton has come a long way in two years, and it looks set to give much needed support to many more people in the years to come.
Find out how you can support your local, grassroots community groups here.
Provide Foundation calls for grant applications
16th November 2020
We are inviting grant applications for up to £10,000 from the Provide Foundation.
Provide is an Essex based social enterprise owned by its staff members and delivers a broad range of community health services in the County. The Provide Foundation is managed by Essex Community Foundation (ECF), with the aim to improve and increase access to community health projects and services by supporting voluntary and community organisations working in Essex, Southend and Thurrock.
This year, the Provide Foundation would like to support organisations or projects that have a clear link to health and social care and meet one of the following objectives:
-continue to adapt well to help the community during the pandemic
-support those who are socially isolated, particularly those most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic
Links to health and social care can include:
-to help keep people out of hospital
-to help people leave hospital more quickly
-to help people stay healthy in their community
-to improve health and wellbeing in the community
The grants of up to £10,000 are available for up to one year and can support core and operating costs, project costs or capital items. Provide are particularly interested in projects that improves digital and technology for people to access projects and services.
The decision making panel is also interested to understand if your project complements their own work or whether you have contact with Provide’s services. For example, if you receive referrals from their staff. Please do include this detail in your application. For more information about Provide and their services click here.
Please complete your application here by 5pm on Friday 8 January and submit it with your supporting documents. The Provide Foundation will award grants in early March.
The deadline to apply for this Fund was on Friday 8 January at 5pm. To still apply for a grant, from another fund that we manage, please call our grants team on 01245 356018 to discuss your work.
Still standing with the sector
4th November 2020
Reposted from the London Funders website.
We, along with a wider group of funders, recognise that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak continues to have a significant impact on civil society groups, and want to offer renewed assurance that we stand with the sector at this time.
As COVID-19 hit our communities we saw how the incredible work of civil society groups helped people through the worst of times. We know civil society will also be crucial to the recovery and renewal of our communities beyond the crisis, and think it’s important to say that we’re not going anywhere – we’re going to be on the side of communities and civil society for the years ahead.
We recognise that these are difficult times for everyone – personally and professionally – and that there will be challenges ahead for us all. We are strongest when we work together, so if you receive grant funding from us we are committed to:
Listening – we’re continuing to listen to the needs of our communities and civil society, and remain committed to the original pledges of the We Stand With The Sector statement on flexibility and responsiveness to these needs.
Learning – we’re learning all the time about how we and civil society can strengthen our work together, and are thinking about how we can share and apply this learning so that we can continue to be effective funders for the future.
Long-term – we’re here for you in lockdowns, and we’ll still be here beyond crisis – we’re working hard to make sure our funding helps communities and civil society thrive now and in the years ahead, and will continue to be open with you as our funding response develops.
We’re proud to play our part in supporting the amazing work of people across civil society – from before COVID-19, through the crisis, and into the future. We stand with the sector now, and always.
To read more, including a list of all other signatories please click here.
Helping to raise a smile
Families struggling to cope with life-threatening or long-term illnesses have had smiles brought back into their lives through the unique work of an award-winning organisation.
Grant a Smile, a not-for-profit community enterprise, was set up five years ago by former teacher Joyce Obaseki, who lives in Loughton.
The organisation, which had the accolade of a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service last year, has been given a grant of £11,540 from Essex Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Programme.
The funding has given Grant a Smile’s work a vital boost in its quest to help families in need.
Joyce launched the organisation after discovering that no support was available for children like one of her pupils, who came to school in a dirty uniform because his mother, who had cancer, was too ill to provide him with clean clothes. The boy was being bullied at school because of his unkempt appearance and Joyce became determined to give youngsters like him the help they need.
Grant a Smile gives free practical support for eligible families whose home life is affected by serious illness. The organisation also aims to grant special wishes for children and has set its sights on expanding its work to help vulnerable and elderly people.
“The help we give can be life-changing, particularly for children who have had to become young carers because they have a parent who is seriously ill,” said Joyce.
“We go into the home and help with all kinds of chores, including cleaning, washing, ironing and gardening. This sort of support has a magical effect, once the house is in order it allows families to have less stressful lives with more time together, without the worry of all the jobs that need to be done.
“We have given this type of valuable help to a Mum who has cancer. One of her three children, a 10-year-old girl, who had been lively and bright as a button, had become mute and was missing out on school. The house was deteriorating, and the Mum was struggling to cope.
“As well as giving practical support in the home, we help with life skills too. We worked closely with the family and one of our volunteers, a mental health specialist and a life coach, gave psychological support.
“The 10-year-old started talking again and her school attendance improved. She doesn’t feel alone anymore and knows that people understand what she is going through. Although her Mum’s health may not get any better, we have been able to teach her how to handle things and she is not overwhelmed anymore.
“We are very grateful for the grant from Essex Community Foundation. There are so many families who need the type of help we can provide which is impossible to find elsewhere.”
The Coronavirus pandemic has meant that Grant a Smile, which has 36 volunteers, has had to prioritise its work to help the families in greatest need. They have been distributing food parcels throughout the pandemic and report a significant rise in referrals.
Joyce and her team of volunteers are tackling the current challenges and the future, with the knowledge that they are making a huge difference to people’s lives and that their work is needed more than ever.