How are you doing?

Feeling lonely? Need support?

As we continue to be encouraged to stay at home, this is a very difficult situation for most of us.

If you are feeling lonely or vulnerable and need a listening ear, then VAMT can help you connect with support. Please phone 01685 353932 or 07580 866547. 

New Funding up to £10,000 - "Transformation COVID19 Voluntary Sector Support Fund"

Please see attached a new funding opportunity that can be accessed via the Regional Partnership Board. The maximum amount that can be applied for is £10,000 and the deadline for applications is 30th April 2020. 

Application Form
Criteria

The priorities are;

• Supporting people to access basic needs including supporting foodbanks, especially people in most need e.g. older people, children with complex needs, carers, people with a disability
• Those living with Dementia
• Loss of income for groups working in health and social care
• Volunteering
• Mental health, loneliness and isolation
• Repurposing activities to support the community through Covid-19 including ICT Infrastructure

If you have any questions, or require support, please email Ian Davy

Digwyddiadau Wythnosol Menter Merthyr/Weekly Activities from Menter Merthyr

Ar gael ar Facebook.  Am fanylion cliciwch yma

Available on Facebook.  For more details click here

Voluntary Service Emergency Fund - small grants from VAMT

VAMT's small grant fund, made available by Welsh Government, is now open for applications.  Two tiers of grant are available: up to £500 to support Covid-19 related activities in a ward or part of a ward in Merthyr Tydfil, or up to £3,000 to support activity over a wider area.  

Closing date is Monday 20 April 2020 and the application form is available  here

Offers of Home Made PPE Facemasks

Cwm Taf UHB are currently receiving lots of offers of  of handmade face masks, and buttoned headbands to hook the facemasks onto.

They are unfortunately unable to use these as they don't meet with strict NHS guidelines on PPE.   They are keen to pass these offers on to any voluntary groups/volunteers who may be able to use them.

If you think they could be of help to your volunteers, please email  Hilary at VAMT who will pass the details on.

WCVA Funds Open

The Voluntary Services Emergency Fund application process is now live.  This fund is for applications of between £10,000 - £100,000 .  Below is the link to further information on the WCVA website here

Applications need to be made through WCVA’s online application portal MAP  which can be reached by visiting MAP

An additional small grants scheme will be administered locally.  We don’t have any further details at the moment, but will let you know as soon as these are available.

If you require any further information or need some help and support during the application process, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

We expect the Third Sector Resilience Fund, providing support for those whose funding raising income has ceased (eg, from charity shops, fundraising events) and for those organisations who have had to furlough staff to be launched today.  Details to follow.

M&S "We're all this together" card- another option for shopping

Another option hopefully here  for volunteer shoppers

Volunteer Shopping Card - Asda

This is a really good idea from Asda - if you have a volunteer doing your shopping at the moment, or want to minimise financial risk for your shopping volunteers.  Take a look  here

Support for Community Businesses led by Young People

Any community businesses led by young people (under 30) can apply for emergency funding from Prince's Trust: https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about-the-trust/coronavirus-response/enterprise-relief-fund

Resources available from Digital Communities Wales

DCW Resource Boards

Your one stop shop for online resources during COVID-19

• Keeping in touch with friends, family and colleagues
• Supporting your mental health
• Supporting those at risk of isolation
• Education at home

To create these boards, we used an application called Padlet because it is simple to navigate and allows us to group information according to its relevance to a topic. We can update each Padlet page as soon as a new resource is discovered, so I would recommend bookmarking the above links and keep an eye out for our daily updates.

DCW COVID-19 web page

If you would like to find out further information on our themed padlets, please visit our dedicated COVID-19 page on the Digital Communities Wales website. Here you will find other useful resources and guidance to help you through the current situation, including the brilliant Learn My Way Resources and BT Skills for Tomorrow, built by our UK partners, Good Things Foundation.
 

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Watch out for scams! 

Platforms such as Facebook Community Groups, WhatsApp Groups and the Nextdoor social network that send neighborhood alerts can be great ways of staying in touch with those around you, however it can be difficult to know who to trust. The National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team has produced some helpful materials to help promote awareness around coronavirus (COVID-19) scams at this difficult time. As well as a helpful download on how to protect people and prevent them from becoming victims of online scams, the website also some useful training materials for people who want to become a ‘Friend Against Scams’. 

Here to help you

We have a fantastic team on hand to help the people you support to get online and we are doing our best to work within ever changing conditions. However, I must state that we currently only have a limited amount of kit to loan out which as you can imagine is in high demand. We are currently trying to improve this situation but we are always here to provide you with support, guidance and training - just phone us on 0300 111 5050 or email digitalcommunities@wales.coop.

Help still available from Samaritans Cymru

More information  here

Services still available from Young Persons Virtual Helpline Meic

Please find press release here

Do the little things: Looking out for each other safely

If you’re symptom free, and would like to support people who are staying at home because of Coronavirus, here are 5 ways you can help safely. Narrated by Michael Sheen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2a1h5wb6sM&t