The Government's new Coronavirus Community Support Fund will open for applications on Friday 22nd May at 10am. £200million of funding will be available primarily for small to medium organisations in England, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Further details, including how to apply, will be available on The National Lottery Community Fund's funding page on Friday 22nd May at 10am.

The Fund has two key objectives:

1. To increase community support to vulnerable people affected by the COVID-19 crisis, through the work of civil society organisations.
2. To reduce temporary closures of essential charities and social enterprises, ensuring services for vulnerable people impacted by COVID-19 have the financial resources to operate, and so reduce the burden on public services.

Sandra Meadows, Chief Executive of Voscur, said:

"Voscur, along with our regional and national partners, have been advocating for the urgent release of goverment funding and increase in the emergency funding altogether. The additional release of £150m of funding to charities working to tackle youth unemployment and to support social enterprises is also welcomed.

"It is critical that these funds are fully accessible for our small and medium sized charities, and we will continue to advocate for equality of access for all organisations."  

Read the press release from The National Lottery Community Fund here

Read the Government's announcement here