Heartfelt thank you highlighted by charity
Published: 22 April 2020
An Exeter charity awarded a grant from the Exeter Covid-19 Community Action Fund has received a heartfelt thank you from one of its clients.
Citizens Advice is already funded by the City Council to provide its core services but recently received an additional £1,000 to develop an advice line that can be accessed from home. The charity, which had to shut its offices due to the Coronavirus outbreak, offers people free independent advice on a range of issues including debt management and welfare.
One of its clients wrote to the charity saying:
“…. my life was in a mess and I no longer had any direction for me to aim for. I would like to tell you all that you have helped me to get life back that I thought I had lost. When I look at myself I now see a person who has now got a reason for living – I would not have had that without your help.”
Steve Barriball, Chief Executive, of Citizens Advice Exeter, said: “To receive this feedback is a massive boost to everyone within our charity who is working so hard to make sure that local people are still able to get the help and support they so desperately need during these difficult times.”
So far more than £63,000 has been distributed to over 40 groups and charities by the £1 million Exeter Covid-19 Action Fund, which is being supported by the Exeter Chiefs Foundation.
The Action Fund was launched at the end of last month in tandem with support service Exeter Community Wellbeing. It 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.
Also receiving grants were the following groups:
- Force Cancer Charity - £3,000 covering loss of income whilst the charity continues to deliver essential services
- Stoke Hill Community Association - £3,000 covering loss of income and to maintain much of the work they currently do, organising bingo, quizzes, home school support, craft and keep-fit
- Co-Lab Exeter - £1,000 towards providing clothing to the homeless
- The Pelican Project Exeter CIC - £1,000 towards delivering a 10-week online program of workshops for their young learning-disabled adults to continue to sustain the connections with their leaders
- Friends of Ide Lane Surgery - £1,000 towards covering volunteer expenditure such as telephone costs, fuel costs to deliver medicine and shopping to vulnerable residents, PPE and sanitisers to protect volunteers.