COVID Winter Grant Scheme – Call for Expressions of Interest

The Government recently announced the £170 million COVID Winter Grant Scheme which aims to support children and families and other vulnerable people most in need with food, bills and other essentials over the winter period. Blackburn with Darwen Council is now in the process of planning the delivery of the scheme and would like to put a call out for expressions of interest from organisations and businesses across the borough who may be in a position to support this between 1st December and 31st March 2021.

The Council is looking for groups and organisations who deliver a service in BwD and can support with one or both of the following: –

1. Support with the ‘food provision’ element of the programme. This may include provision of food boxes/parcels, meals, family food clubs, community food larders etc. Your organisation must have food provision as part of its core business and be able to ensure food provision is in line with the Eat Well Guide and School Food Plan where appropriate.
2. Support with identifying and referring children and families and other vulnerable individuals from a pre-determined criteria. This will be via an electronic form on the Council’s website.

Please respond by email to bewell.together@blackburn.gov.uk by 5pm Wednesday 25th November with the following information: –

• Name of Organisation/Group
• Element of support you can provide – 1 or 2
• Area of the Borough you cover
• Groups you work with – CYP/Families and/or other vulnerable group
• Numbers you may expect to reach who would be in receipt of Universal Credit, Free School Meals, Healthy Start or who have been affected by COVID through job loss, furlough etc and may fall short of other support.
• Systems you have in place to quality assure provision and to monitor grant fund use
• Contact information

Apologies for the tight timescale but the Council are having to pull this programme together at pace to be able to deliver from 1st December.

Please note – the Council are expecting a considerable number of expressions of interest and may not be able to provide grant funding to all interested organisations. However, they do hope that all organisations will continue to support them in identifying vulnerable residents who would benefit from the range of support being developed.