Page 5 - OCF - Pandemic Year Impact Report

Responding better OCF’s initial response was to focus on some key priorities:
• Food distribution was urgently needed because people were vulnerable or shielding, and there were food shortages because of panic buying. Our grants supported low-income families, many of which found themselves seeking out this support for the first time as they were affected by redundancy and furlough.
• Charity capacity became an immediate and pressing need at a time when fundraising events had to be cancelled and income dried up overnight. Our grants helped organisations to move vital services online, or simply funded core costs to ensure that critical local organisations could continue to provide advice and support when it was most needed.
In the first two weeks of the pandemic OCF pumped out over £100,000 in emergency grants to groups at the frontline of the crisis. Many projects funded were new initiatives that had sprung up in response
to the pandemic – armies of volunteers supporting people in their neighbourhoods. It was therefore important to offer funding to new organisations, some with little track record – placing trust in local communities to understand the needs and respond in their own way, with few strings attached.
OCF’s strategic initiatives also adapted to the immediate needs of their beneficiaries – and the pandemic only served to justify the importance we had placed on these partnerships. For example:
• Oxfordshire Homeless Movement supported the Everyone In initiative, coordinating groups of volunteers and fielding requests for resources to equip newly furnished rooms in emergency accommodation.
• Age Friendly Banbury was a key stakeholder in a new ‘Connect’ project helping older, isolated people to get online during lockdown and beyond.
• Growing Minds adapted its early years offering to bring phone and doorstep support to disadvantaged families isolated at home during lockdown.
March
• First UK deaths; WHO identifies COVID-19 as a global pandemic
• National Emergencies Trust Coronavirus Appeal launched
• OCF launches the Community Resilience Fund (CRF)
• Public spaces closed and furlough scheme announced
• Lockdown 1 announced, including school closures
• Government announces ‘Everyone In’ directive to bring rough sleepers inside
“One family wrote to us sharing: ‘You have saved me so much. Things have been so difficult for me and my family since my hours were reduced to six a week. Just to see the happiness again on my kid’s face. You are angels.’”
OX4 Free Food Crew
“What OCF’s grant enabled us to do was to stop worrying about money and think
‘okay, what is the immediate community need?’”
Sara Fernandez, Oxford Hub
April
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted to intensive care
• OCF makes £200k in grants in first month of CRF
• Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine trials underway, with an OCF staff member taking part!
Oxfordshire Community Foundation 3
COVID-19 timeline