How your donations to Covid-19 Community Response Fund are being spent to help so far

Manchester’s own We Love MCR Charity launched the Covid-19 Community Response Fund on 24 March 2020 to help meet the desperate needs created – or at least exacerbated – by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Many vulnerable people across our city have been put at greater risk by the vital isolation measures, and the complex problems accompanying poverty and loneliness are all made more challenging by isolation and the contraction of the economy.

The fund continues to invite local charities and groups who are on the frontline to apply for grants to make an immediate difference to local people and they aim to get a decision to applicants within just 48 hours.

So far, the public have donated a total of £589,280 to the Covid-19 Community Response Fund.

The charity’s fantastic fundraisers include Daniel Harrison, who has already raised £930 by streaming his DJ set from his garden; and sisters Abi & Lucy, who’s two-hour Super Bounce on their garden trampoline raised £350.

“Covid-19 is presenting huge challenge to so many of our neighbours,” said Ged Carter, We Love MCR Charity’s Development Manager. “With the public’s support, we’re proud to be getting extra funds to the frontline, to support our most vulnerable neighbours. If you can afford to, please chip in to our appeal. The good work we can do is only limited by the funds we can raise.”

Following eligible and successful applications, 118 grants have been awarded totalling £356,476

Huge thanks to all who've supported our Emergency Fund. We’ve made a good start but still a long way to go to generate funds for iPads, art materials & equipment needed for our participants to continue creating at home. Can you help us combat isolation? https://t.co/Zp36KEuWt6 pic.twitter.com/KH8NWA21Ow

— Venture Arts (@VentureArts) April 15, 2020

Over 30 grants have been awarded to food poverty relief and delivery to vulnerable people; 28 grants awarded to technology to enable staff to carry on vital support remotely (e.g. laptops, phones, Zoom membership); 22 grants to increased staff and volunteer costs; 12 grants to craft activities, games, jigsaws & resources to provide support to self-isolating older people and children; 11 grants to emergency support for people facing destitution or hardship; and 4 grants have been awarded to technology to enable vulnerable clients to access vital support and reduce isolation.

Who have been awarded Covid-19 grants?

• Nephra Good Neighbours – Funding to provide a meals on wheels service
• Make Lunch South Manchester – Providing lunch to children from families on a low income
• £150,000 to 13 food relief organisations operating all over the city. This includes a £25,000 grant to Open Kitchen Manchester who turn food that would go to waste into tasty meals for vulnerable people
• Manchester Rape Crisis – Grant to provide phone and IT support, to enable vital emotional support and counselling for victims of rape and sexual assault to continue
• Greater Manchester Law Centre – Have seen enquires about employment cases triple during the crisis. The Centre in Levenshulme has used our grant to equip staff to work from home, to provide emergency advice regarding employment, evictions and homelessness
• Heart and Parcel – They have switched to providing live-streamed ESOL classes to their clients
• Cheetham Hill Advice Centre – Grant to fund increased sessional staff with language skills, to cope with increased demand for urgent advice and support
• Hope for Justice – Funding to cover increased costs of interpreting services to support victims of modern slavery
• DePaul UK – Increased staff costs need to be funded, to ensure their young people’s hostels are fully staffed and supported as demand grows
• Together Dementia – Providing books, arts & craft materials and seeds to older people suffering dementia
• MCR Cares – Hosting “visual social clubs”, including desert island discs, pub quizzes and chair exercise. Also providing activity packs to members’ homes
• Living Stones Education Trust – Sending educational resources to children with learning needs that they would normally have access to at their homework club
• Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) – Grants for destitute women to access phones, credit, food and medicine.
• Safety For Sisters – Emergency support for migrant women with no recourse to public funds, who are fleeing violence in their home
• Albert Kennedy Trust – Emergency funding to offer support for LGBT+ young people
• Levenshulme Youth Project – Tablets for young people and families with no internet access
• Centrepoint – Tablets and Internet dongles for young, isolated people at risk of homelessness  to allow them to stay connected and access support
• Venture Arts – Providing iPADS for learning-disabled people, to enable them to continue to be creative, with the remote support from an artist

Apply for a Covid-19 grant

To apply for a Covid-19 Community Response Fund Grant – download the application form here. We Love MCR aim to get a decision to applicants within 48 hours.

Apply for grant

Donate to Covid-19 Community Response Fund

The public can support the Fund by donating to the We Love MCR Charity Appeal, or by setting up their own JustGiving fundraising page and linking it to this page.

As well as giving online, if you can afford to, you can text “MANCHESTER 10” to 70470 to donate £10.

Donate now