Age UK Exeter receives grant to help support elderly
Published: 3 April 2020
Age UK Exeter is the latest group to be awarded a grant by the Exeter Covid-19 Community Action Fund.
The charity, which is based in St Thomas, has received £3,000.
The £1 million fund was launched last week in tandem with support service Exeter Community Wellbeing. The Fund enables organisations to get rapid access to small grants to allow them to work on local projects to support those people and communities most affected by the pandemic.
Since the outbreak of the virus, Age UK Exeter has been receiving around 200 calls a day from older people and their families seeking help with shopping and prescription collections.
Disruption to the charity’s normal services – before the outbreak, it ran a packed schedule of activities and events across the city as well as a café in Cowick Street and its popular Men in Sheds initiative – has resulted in a loss of income of around £12,000 per week.
Martyn Rogers, Chief Executive of Age UK Exeter, said: “Since 23 March we have remodeled our services to provide telephone and doorstep delivery support to vulnerable older people in the city who have little or no other forms of support.
“We are doing everything possible to keep going and provide this valuable support to some of Exeter’s most vulnerable citizens and this grant from Exeter Community Wellbeing is hugely appreciated.”
Cllr Amal Ghusain, Lead Councillor of Equalities, Diversity and Communities, said: “Age UK Exeter do so much across the city to help and support our elderly population. Like so many charities they are struggling at the moment to make ends meet and that is why we wanted to support them with this grant to allow them to continue with that good work.”
Hill Barton Residents Association has also received a grant from the Exeter Covid-19 Community Action Fund.
The Association was awarded £300 to coordinate a response for its 300 homes in the Hill Barton Vale area. The money will be used to produce leaflets and emergency cards and pay for the fuel and cost of transport for the delivery of small food parcels for the elderly and vulnerable, who are self-isolating.