third sector – Page 3 – The NEN

£30 million for charities and social enterprise

A new £30 million fund is being established to support small businesses within the third sector, helping them to grow as Scotland recovers from the impacts of coronavirus.

The fund will be designed to respond to a need for third sector organisations to access loans to help grow and explore new forms of social investment and finance. It will also help support the sector to meet the challenge of the pandemic and to become more sustainable in the long-term.

Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell said: “We have worked hard to support the third sector throughout the pandemic. This new fund will focus on those organisations with the potential to grow, contributing to jobs and making a positive contribution to our communities and the wellbeing economy.

“It also goes some way towards our commitment to explore other strands of social investment, including capital loans, to build upon Scotland’s world leading position in social enterprise.

“The fund will help this sector to ensure that it not only supports our communities, but is at the very forefront of our recovery, leading our communities and our country through recovery.”

Yvonne Greeves, Board member at Firstport & Chair of Catalyst Fund, said: “The Catalyst Fund is an exciting new addition to the social investment arena in Scotland.

“The patient, revenue-based repayment model is well placed to help certain social enterprises obtain the capital they need to start-up and grow, whilst offering them a more flexible repayment approach to match their ambitions.

“We welcome the support from the Scottish Government in backing this innovative model and we look forward to supporting social enterprises with potential for high-growth to enter new markets and deliver significant social impact.”

The Third Sector Growth Fund will build on more than £1 billion which has been invested in communities since the start of the pandemic, which includes a recent commitment to a further £14 million to allow the Communities and Third Sector Recovery Programme to continue to the end of June.

The Third Sector Growth Fund will have three elements:

The Social Catalyst fund, which totals £15 million, will help growing organisations which are not able to access finance through standard loans, offering investment which can be repaid based on turnover, rather than growing interest rates. This would suit small businesses and start-ups whose income is variable.
The Circular Economy Fund will support activity which builds on sustainability of social enterprises and enables growth through investment loans. Together with The Long Term Third Sector Finance Fund which will offer loans for social enterprises and Third Sector organisations over a period of 18-24 months. a total of £10 million will be available.
The Social Impact Venture Portfolio will offer investments of equity into mission-driven businesses, encouraging organisations to adopt a social enterprise model. This is worth £5 million.

The delivery partners are The Social Impact Venture Portfolio and Social Investment Scotland, a social enterprise and a charity offering loan funding and business support across the sector to make a positive impact on lives, society and the environment.

Social Investment Scotland will manage The Circular Economy Social Enterprise Fund and Long Term Third Sector Finance Fund.

The Impact Investment Partnership Scotland (IIPS), an entity owned equally by Firstport and Social Enterprise Scotland (SES), will manage the Social Catalyst Fund.

Access to the funds will be by application. Further details of the funds and how to apply will be published on the partner organisations websites later this Spring.

Forth & Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meets tomorrow

This is a reminder for the Forth and Inverleith VSF on Zoom, tomorrow – Wednesday, Nov 4^th at 11am

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82718053569?pwd=dXBFc3ZqUWZXTjFONlNOUkhyQ1F3dz09

Meeting ID: 827 1805 3569

Passcode: 938535

We will use the below agenda to guide our discussion and welcome Dr Linda Irvine-Fitzpatrick and Dr Peter Kitchen as guests to the forum:

1. Welcome and introductions – name and organisation

Dr Linda Irvine-Fitzpatrick: Updates from the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (Edinburgh Pact, Thrive, Three Conversations)
Dr Peter Kitchen: New GP practice in the Granton area
Member updates – 1 to 2 minutes each
AOB
Date of next meeting

Kate Barrett

Development Worker – Community Planning, EVOC

Emergency help for those worse affected by coronavirus

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.”

Our £8 million of priority funding is supporting services like @scotwomensaid, whose crucial work ensures that people most at risk from the impacts of coronavirus can get the support they need.

Find out who the funding will help ➡️ https://t.co/ORauQMVGNj pic.twitter.com/5UGXBwqo5E

— Scottish Government (@scotgov) April 6, 2020

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

City says Thank You!

There’s been a great response from the people of Edinburgh to help the city get through the current coronavirus pandemic.

Edinburgh Partnership thanks the public and voluntary organisations for all their help so far pulling the city through this pandemic
People asked to ‘Think Local and Act Local’ and be good neighbours, where they can
To keep essential services running and look after vulnerable people Council constantly monitoring how it deploys its staff

We’d like to thank everyone who has been in touch with the voluntary and public sector to offer their skills and time. We know that many of you are keen to also ‘do your bit’ to contribute to this effort and we would like to thank those of you who are trying to find ways to help your communities.

Your kindness and generosity in these difficult times are a reflection of all that is best about the city we share and the people who call it home.

We need everyone to look out for each other now more than ever and being a good neighbour and taking care of those who need help in your building, street or immediate community is going to help get us through – Volunteer Edinburgh has advice and information on how you can help.

If you are part of an existing or newly formed community group please contact EVOC who have developed a directory and are connecting the amazing community responses across the city. EVOC is working hard to connect supply and demand of food at a very local and community level.

EVOC is asking people to complete this basic form or email info@evoc.org.uk for more information.

Council Leader, Adam McVey, said: “The voluntary sector is doing an amazing job pulling everyone together and making sure people can help out appropriately following government guidelines. If you are able to help others then please ‘Think Local and Act Local’.

“Where you can, offer support to your wider family, your friends and your neighbours to help ensure that they can receive the essential supplies and medicine that they may need.

“Volunteer Edinburgh has a range of information and guidance on how to be a good neighbour safely. At the moment the best thing that most people can do is still to stay at home, limit social contact and follow NHS guidelines. This really is the most important contribution that can be made to the safety and resilience of the city.”

Depute Leader, Cammy Day, said: “To keep essential services running and support those who are vulnerable, we’re constantly monitoring how we deploy our own staff as well. We’re working to identify where our services need help and at the moment we’re relying on our own internal capacity to meet those needs.

“We’ll be monitoring this over the weeks ahead and will work with Volunteer Edinburgh if we think we need the wider community to help us. In the meantime staying safe at home is the best thing people can do. If you can offer more then it really is a matter of thinking local and acting local.

“I want to make sure the local community organisations have a key contact to make sure we have a joined up approach and would urge people to make connect via the EVOC.”

Ella Simpson, Chief Officer of EVOC, said: “I am incredibly proud to be part of the voluntary sector in Edinburgh. They know their communities so well and have been absolutely amazing in their responses to Covid-19.

“As we continue to respond it is vital that we all work together – volunteers, voluntary sector and statutory agencies – to support the most vulnerable people in our communities.”

Paul Wilson, Chief Officer of Volunteer Edinburgh, said: “People’s response to the pandemic has been overwhelming. In every street in Edinburgh people are helping each other, looking out for their neighbours and supporting the vulnerable and those in self isolation.

“Never before has it been more important to give your time, if you are able to, be a good neighbour and look out for each other. More than any other city in Scotland Edinburgh has always been a city of volunteers, of people who helped and I am very proud to live here.

“Please everyone be safe, think and act locally, continue to support your community in the weeks to come and most of all be kind.”

North Edinburgh’s voluntary sector has rallied to the cause with community organisations pulling out all the stops to ensure the area’s most vulnerable residents get food and essential supplies.

Now three weeks into operation there’s a co-ordinated effort to pool community resources and expertise to get supplies to people in Muirhouse,Drylaw Telford, West Pilton, Granton and Royston Wardieburn.

Do you, or someone you know, need food, supplies or other support during this hugely difficult time?

An information sheet with key telephone contact numbers is currently being produced and should be available over the next day or two, but in the meatime please email me at northedinburghnews@gmail.com and I will pass on your details to the relevant area organisers.

Remember the key advice: STAY HOME UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY

Discussion: Third Sector voices in Community Planning

Thursday 28 November

9:30am-12pm, Quaker Meeting House

EVOC are hosting a workshop to explore the best way for the voluntary sector’s voice to be heard in local community planning from 2020. Continue reading Discussion: Third Sector voices in Community Planning

Briggs praises work of Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations

Lothian MSP Miles Briggs has praised the work of the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) in supporting charities, social enterprises and Voluntary groups to make Scotland a better place.

The SCVO promotes voluntary organisations and lobby the Scottish Government on their behalf.

To celebrate 20 years of the voluntary sector and the Scottish Parliament working together SCVO have published a book, “Charities, Scotland & Holyrood, Twenty Years Delivering Change”. You can find an electronic copy of the book here.

Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP, said: “The voluntary sector in Scotland plays a huge role in communities up and down the country.

“Thousands of volunteers give their time and money to help a range of excellent causes that make a huge difference to peoples life.

“The SCVO do an exceptional job speaking on behalf of volunteers in Scotland and this new book aptly celebrate the working relationship between the Scottish Parliament and the voluntary sector over the last 20 years.”

Charities-Scotland-Holyrood-Twenty-Years-Delivering-Change

Forth & Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meets next week

The next Forth and Inverleith Edinburgh Voluntary Sector Forum meeting will take place on Thursday 24th October from 10am – 12pm in EVOC’s office at 525 Ferry Road.

Locality Manager Peter Strong will talk about the Locality Community Planning Partnerships and the role of VSFs within these. Continue reading Forth & Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meets next week

Voluntary Sector Forum meets tomorrow

Forth & Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meets tomorrow (Wednesday 1^st May) from 10.30-12.30 at North Edinburgh Arts. Continue reading Voluntary Sector Forum meets tomorrow