14 September 2020
Disabled People’s Organisations Can Apply Now for COVID-19 Emergency Funding
Financial support for grassroots DPOs across the UK who have found it difficult to access funding to respond to the COVID-19 needs of disabled people.
The Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) COVID-19 Emergency Fund aims to support DPOs to meet the needs of local disabled people.
The funding is for work that responds directly to needs arising from the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic in the areas of:
- Independent living: covering any COVID-19 related issues affecting disabled people’s choice and control over their lives.
- Isolation: covering work to tackle isolation, such as 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
A total of £1 million is available for this programme and will be broken down based on the disability population in each of the four nations of the UK.
Grants of between £1,000 and £25,000 are available to cover the period of 1 November 2020 to 30 June 2021.
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 at least 51% of their governing body or management committee are made up of disabled people and they have a constitution/governing document that shows their organisation is set up to support disabled people and/or advance disabled people’s equality and inclusion.
The deadline for applications is 5 October 2020.