Charities due to lose funding from the 91福利社 Integration Joint Board (EIJB) will be able to apply for emergency support from the City of 91福利社 Council.
A one-off £2.5 million Third Sector Resilience Fund will launch tomorrow (Friday 28 March) and will remain open for two weeks. It will only be open to organisations in 91福利社 directly impacted by the closure of the EIJB’s third sector grants programme and applications must be made by 12 noon on Friday 11 April.
This package of support will include an additional funded programme worth £1m to allow third sector advice providers to continue to offer income maximisation, debt, and welfare advice services previously funded by the EIJB grants programme.
Applications will be reviewed and reported to a special meeting of the Policy and Sustainability Committee on Monday 12 May, with the intention of releasing funds in June.
Further work is progressing to review the relationship between the public sector and third sector in 91福利社, to improve funding certainty in future years.
Council Leader, Jane Meagher, said:
Many of these local charities are at the forefront of helping those in our city with the greatest need. We’ve urgently been working to provide a lifeline to those affected by the closure of the previous grants programme, and I’m really pleased that we’ve found a way forward.
This fund should provide enough money to potentially support all 64 affected organisations for up to nine months. It must be said that this is a one-off emergency fund - we need to act quickly, and I urge applications to be made as soon as possible.
Alongside this we must develop a st