Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Our community is facing an enormous threat from the combined consequences of COVID -19 including rising unemployment, financial hardship and social isolation caused by social distancing requirements. An added challenge is the difficulty community services face in reaching people in need while keeping their staff and dedicated volunteers safe.
Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation has adapted quickly to find new ways of responding to emerging needs in the community. What has not changed is our commitment to making a meaningful difference to the lives of people in regional communities.
With our existing charity partners, we’ve been working to make funding available earlier than planned to provide support when and where it is needed most. During the coming months, the Charitable Foundation is bringing forward approximately $750,000 to fund new community support initiatives that address both immediate hardship and the need to support community-led recovery as restrictions ease and we try to find our new normal. These initiatives include:
- Delivering care packages and outreach services, utilising vehicles and assets previously funded by the Foundation to reach families and young people most at risk of losing contact with social services in regional communities
- Support for Mental Health, including assisting Batyr to launch online mental health discussions with school and university students for Term 2, and a partnership with local health services to deliver targeted information on the impact of financial hardship on mental well-being
- Recovery through capacity building, social connections, and paths to training and re-employment.
We are also maintaining our commitment to our regular funding programs and will soon be announcing a further $800,000 for new community projects from our latest funding round. Our charity partners are there for the community when needed most; so by working together we will overcome the current crisis and continue to rewrite the future, now and for generations to come.