Page 8 - OCF - Pandemic Year Impact Report

Recovering stronger
Early on in the pandemic, OCF’s Board was keen to start using the funds with which we had been entrusted to support communities’ recovery from COVID-19.
This resulted in three large-scale, strategic grants being made in July 2020 with the objective of building a strong legacy from the response so far. This funding sought to ensure that alongside immediate relief, OCF was leading the way in generating longer-term change to the community sector, by proactively supporting innovation and collaboration.
SOFEA’s Community Larders were never more needed
than during lockdown. The larders are food membership schemes focused on areas of deprivation, allowing people to collect a week’s worth of shopping at a fraction of
the price, using supermarket surplus. At the start of the pandemic SOFEA rapidly implemented 23 new emergency larders distributing free food, and with the support of OCF’s £50,000 grant they are now rolling out the full membership scheme in these locations, with a view to expanding to
50 larders across the county. This will mean the support
for low-income families is sustainable, and will come with wrap-around benefits such as a stay and play, cookery lessons, benefits advice and referrals.
“Since the new year, we have continued to grow membership by 2.0% each week (an average of 16 new members each week). The total provision amounts to around 11 tonnes of food each week.”
Oxford Hub kicked off their Oxford Together volunteering initiative in the city two weeks before the first lockdown.
A system of street champions was established, connecting up mutual aid initiatives, doorstep supplies and a phone befriending service; this has since fielded over 10,000 requests for support and mobilised over 1,200 volunteers. Using an OCF grant of £44,700, they have consolidated their Phone Links programme – onboarding new volunteers and enabling over 200 friendships. They are also developing the digital matching system, to last beyond the pandemic as a city-wide good neighbour scheme.
“Across the city, action of all kinds was springing up and partnerships forming. We are proud to be part of this wider ecosystem, all contributing different parts of the jigsaw to build a better Oxford.”
Sara Fernandez, Oxford Hub
Asylum Welcome has been working with asylum seekers and refugees from Eritrea, Syria, Sudan, Iran and many other countries before and during the pandemic. While COVID has hit all of us in different ways, it has hit those already most marginalised and with the weakest family and community support structures hardest. Their project, seeded with a £50,000 grant from OCF, is focused on building
up the informal support groups that already exist within migrant communities, but that struggle from a chronic lack of capacity. The charity has so far supported over 20 of these emerging groups to enhance their capability through funding, advocacy advice, skills and training, and peer support.
“These community organisations are the real front line on the human front. They give people a chance to meet, fulfil some gaps left in their lives, share, help each other and seek to better themselves.” Mark Goldring, Asylum Welcome
January
• Lockdown 3 announced and schools closed
• New round of funding in response to lockdown 3 is overwhelmed with applications
• UK death toll exceeds 100,000 milestone
James Plunket, SOFEA
November
• Unemployment in Oxfordshire increases by 2.5 times
• OCF estimates that 76,000 jobs across the county will be at risk after furlough ends
• Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine proven to be 75% effective
December
• Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine approved by UK regulator and first vaccines administered
• New restrictions introduced in the South East in response to the Alpha (Kent) variant
6 Journal of a Pandemic Year