The Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland has launched a new fund to help local charities and community organisations recover from the impact of Covid-19.

The Coronavirus Response and Recovery fund has been launched by the foundation with an initial £200,000. It is now asking the public, businesses and other funders to contribute, with plans for the first wave of grants to be made by the end of the month.

The foundation has said it hopes donations will double in order to provide support for as many groups and communities as it can, for as long as possible.

“With the coronavirus outbreak, many people and businesses want to know what more they can do to help,” Community Foundation chief executive, Rob Williamson said.

“With this fund, we’ll use our knowledge to reach the organisations helping vulnerable people on the ground. And we’ll support charitable groups recover from the impact of the outbreak on their own work and income. We hope people come on board with us to help build the funds available.

Funding will be initially granted to organisations providing services and support to older and vulnerable people as well as those with low and insecure incomes, including people on universal credit or working in the ‘gig economy’.

Funding will also support activities for school-age children in less well-off communities where schools have closed.

The fund will support a wider group of local charities during a second stage, when it will specifically target organisations whose operations and finances have been affected as a result of the pandemic.

This will be via an application process that the Community Foundation will release details of in the coming weeks.

For updates on this and other funds that may be available, people are advised to sign up to the Community Foundation’s newsletter via its website.

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