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 (above) 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.
Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell 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.”
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) receives an award of £3 million. SCVO Chief Executive Anna Fowlie said: “I am delighted that Aileen Campbell, Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, and her colleagues in Scottish Government have listened to the voices from the voluntary sector looking for urgent support at this time of unprecedented uncertainty.
“The measures announced today will go a long way to helping voluntary organisations through the immediate pressures, which of course means that they can continue to rise to the challenge of supporting people and communities across the country.”
Scottish Women’s Aid has been allocated £1.35 million and there’s over £226,000 for Rape Crisis Scotland. The Child Poverty Action Group is awarded £105,000.
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.
The full list of the projects to be awarded a share of the funding is:
| 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
