Power to Change launches up to £12 million in emergency support for community businesses
Melanie May | 4 May 2020 | News
Power to Change is launching up to £12 million of emergency support to provide both immediate and medium-term help for community businesses facing a loss of trading income due to the coronavirus crisis.
The emergency support includes:
- £7 million in rescue funding for community businesses, with grants up to £25,000 available to contribute towards trading income losses incurred between April and June 2020. This first pot of funding is available to current and previous Power to Change grantees, and to community businesses that are members of Power to Change’s strategic partners – Co-operatives UK, Locality and the Plunkett Foundation
- £5 million in recovery funding, to be made available later this year, based on learning from the first pot to help community businesses rebuild and recover from the crisis
Community businesses providing essential support in their communities across the country include Homebaked (main image), a community land trust and co-operative bakery in Liverpool that has set up a new takeaway delivery service during lockdown and is working with local groups to get food and care to the vulnerable, and Nudge, a community business that converts derelict buildings in Plymouth. It has created a WiFi net between the buildings to provide free internet access to the community.
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Power to Change’s emergency support will be open for applications from 11 May to support those organisations and around a thousand more community businesses who are members of Co-operatives UK, Locality and Plunkett Foundation. Those organisations can find out more on the Power to Change website and attend a free webinar about the scheme on 6 May.
Power to Change has already started contacting some of its grantees to begin testing and opening up the emergency support available. All new applications to Power to Change funding programmes are paused while it focuses on delivering its emergency support. However, those who have already been awarded a grant will receive it as planned.
Vidhya Alakeson, CEO of Power to Change, said:
“The coronavirus crisis has shown just how important community businesses are to the lives of local people right across the country. From providing essential supplies and services, to supporting the vulnerable and isolated, there have been countless stories of community businesses leading the way in the community response to Covid-19.
“Our aim now is to ensure that community businesses can continue their vital work despite the impact of lost trading due to coronavirus. We have designed this emergency support in close collaboration with our partners Cooperatives UK, Locality, and the Plunkett Foundation, taking on board insights and advice from across the sector. We will continually review the short- and medium-term needs of community businesses as we support them throughout this crisis and beyond.”
- Power to Change to remain open following £20mn funding boost (18 March 2021)
- Power to Change deposits £5 million in Charity Bank (9 July 2019)
- Power to Change releases £4.5 million for community-led housing (22 February 2019)
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.