Royal approval for Scotland’s Response, Recovery and Resilience

It’s not every day our future king requests a personal call but that’s exactly what happened this week when the Duke of Cambridge, Patron of the National Emergencies Trust, contacted two projects who have received funding from The Foundation Scotland Response, Recovery & Resilience Fund in partnership with the National Emergencies Trust.

The Duke first spoke to Cor Hutton, Founder of Finding Your Feet, which is a Paisley-based charity that provides physical and emotional support to amputees and those with limb absence across Scotland.

A swift response from The Foundation Scotland Response, Recovery & Resilience Fund saw the organisation awarded £5,000 at the very beginning of the pandemic allowing them to adapt their services, providing online and telephone counselling, as well as online lockdown classes.

Next on the video call were PEEK Project, who have provided 123,000 nutritious meals since lockdown began to families requiring assistance in East Glasgow. The Duke got a peek into their food truck – called PEEKACHEW – where they are making around 300 meals a day.

A £5,000 grant from The Foundation Scotland Response, Recovery & Resilience Fund enabled PEEK to respond to demand for hygiene and wellbeing packs, such as sanitary products and soap which are being provided alongside the food deliveries.

Across Scotland all of NET’s Coronavirus Appeal funds are distributed by The Foundation Scotland Response, Recovery & Resilience Fund to small charities and grassroots groups that are delivering real results for the most vulnerable and affected during this crisis.

To date Foundation Scotland have supported 550 community projects with total funds in excess of £2m. Among the local projects to have benefited are SCRAN Academy and FSU Circle, who both received £5000, Ferrywell Youth Project (£2917) and Leith’s Greatway Foundation, who were awarded £4600.

Giles Ruck, Chief Executive of Foundation Scotland said: “We are delighted to see the real impact these funds are making in Scotland and to receive recognition directly from the Duke this week is wonderful.

“Foundation Scotland distributes dozens of funds from National Emergencies Trust every week and we’re privileged to be their sole partner in Scotland.  We remain committed to supporting the ongoing needs of small charities and groups to help them adapt and recover to create more resilient communities across Scotland.”

To watch the interviews between the two organisations and the Duke of Cambridge please click here.

Foundation Scotland launched the Response, Recovery and Resilience Fund on Friday 27th March 2020 with funding from the National Emergencies Trust (NET). The overall aim of the Fund was to help those most affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak.

In order to quickly evaluate the initial impact of the RRR Fund, and understand the next set of challenges in the short, medium and longer-term, FS worked in partnership with Scottish Community Development Centre to survey the recipients of all funds distributed in the first 12 days. Within this time we distributed just over £1m in grants to 300 different projects.

The online survey went out to 291 recipients and was completed by 135. In addition, there was also a series of 31 telephone interviews with a cross-section of the grantees.

The high response to both the survey and interviews was very encouraging and shows how important this funding has been to the recipients and their commitment to continuing to support those people who are most vulnerable and at risk during the crisis and in the aftermath.

This report highlights what the key impacts of the funding are, and the main challenges that the grantees are now facing.

The review has set out a list of recommendations for Foundation Scotland (and other funders) to consider when developing and delivering future phases of the Fund. The report combines an overall analysis of the findings with illustrative examples, along with a set of key findings and recommendations for Foundation Scotland and their partners in the RRR Fund.

To read more, please choose from one of the following links:

To find out more about the RRR Fund, how to apply and where the funds have been distributed to date please click here

If you’d like to know more including how to apply for funds please visit our The Foundation Scotland Response, Recovery & Resilience Fund page.

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