Disabled People’s Organisations emergency Covid fund opens for applications
Melanie May | 18 September 2020 | News
The Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) COVID-19 Emergency Fund is open for applications until 5 October.
£1.5m of National Emergencies Trust funding is available to support grassroots DPOs across the UK, who have found it difficult to access funding, to help them meet the needs of local disabled people. It will be administered and distributed through a partnership of DPOs across the UK.
The DPO COVID-19 Emergency Fund is looking to fund Covid-19 related work in the following broad three areas:
- Independent living: covering any Covid-19 related issues affecting disabled people’s choice and control over their lives for example: changes to the built environment, streetscape and transport, advice and advocacy support, and employment advice or advice to individuals about their rights if they feel they need to continue to shield
- Isolation: covering work to tackle isolation for example: providing IT equipment and support so people can access on-line support or setting up and running peer support networks
- Income: covering work to support disabled people to access benefits and entitlements and manage debt issues
The fund will be able to pay for equipment, running and staffing costs as well as covering a full cost recovery model.
Any DPO in the UK can apply if a majority of their governing body (greater than 51%) or management committee are made up of disabled people and they have a constitution – so they do not need to be a registered charity.
Grants of £1,000 up to £25,000 are available, and the funding period is 8 months from 1 November 2020 to 30 June 2021.
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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.