St John’s Crisis Fund provides funding support to individuals and families in Bath & North East Somerset who are struggling financially.
As Covid-19 increased its grip on the country, both in terms of health and financial impacts, here at St John’s we responded by amending our Crisis Fund criteria to make it easier for our referrers to support a wider-range of beneficiaries.
Since March 2020, as a direct result of the Covid-19 outbreak, we have pledged to:
- Disregard any support St John’s has previously awarded as part of our assessment process, meaning a full allocation of funding can be awarded even if support has previously been given in the last three years
- Ensure that any funding awarded now does not impact on an individual or family’s ability to secure a full allocation of support from St John’s in the future, meaning applications linked directly to Covid-19 will be treated as ‘one-offs’
- Be flexible around our usual definition of ‘low income’ (which we usually take to be a monthly disposable household income of £215) and the documentation we require as supporting evidence
- Be open to funding a wide range of goods and services which may be requested
See the impact on our testimonials page.
In the Organisation Funding department…
St John’s has teamed up with Quartet Community Foundation to deliver vital financial support to FareShare South West. At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the charity was seeking urgent funding for their Covid-19 Emergency Food Operation. By working together, St John’s and Quartet have given the charity a much needed £40,000 boost. The funds will enable FareShare to continue to support all of the BaNES groups it currently does including schools, nurseries and children’s centres, homeless shelters and the elderly, whilst maintaining the flow of surplus food into the local authority.
“St John’s has been funding FareShare since the beginning of 2019. We recognise the huge value of its work in making sure food is accessible and affordable for charities and individuals living in BaNES. At this time, many more people are struggling to access and afford food, and supporting FareShare is an excellent way of using our resources to effectively help people during this difficult time”
– Sam Gillett, Head of Funding at St John’s
We have also awarded £4,800 to enable 3SG to increase their website’s capacity for volunteer sign-ups and support them in the development of the Compassionate Community Hub (read more about the hub further down). This has enabled them to begin the process of providing vital volunteer support to charities and communities.
To find out more about our Funding Support Programmes, please click here.
