Support Cambridgeshire is delighted to announce that two of its partner organisations, CCVS and Hunts Forum, have been award £30,000 to deliver a year-long project across Fenland.

This funding has been awarded as part of the infrastructure grant scheme, which gives 15 local infrastructure charities funding to review and support their service during and after COVID. Infrastructure has been the backbone to the voluntary and community response during the pandemic. It is worth noting that these organisations are charities in themselves, with their own challenges.

Lloyds Bank Foundation hopes this money will allow infrastructure organisations to have the space to reflect on their delivery and services moving forward, ensuring that they can continue to respond to the changing demands of the sector.

Paul Streets, Chief Executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, said: “Infrastructure charities have played a vital role to ensure that the response to the pandemic has been effective and locally rooted. These locally embedded organisations know the complex challenges facing their communities and are helping small charities to adapt to the challenges they’ve faced over the last ten months……Crucially, these organisations are also helping to raise the importance of small charities that provide local services.”

Hunts Forum and CCVS are thrilled to have been granted this funding. It will allow for a scoping exercise and support program responding to the needs of the voluntary and community sector in Fenland. It will also give the capacity to both organisations to review what infrastructure support looks like across the five districts of Cambridgeshire.

Julie Farrow, CEO at Hunts Forum and the lead organisation in the Support Cambridgeshire partnership, said: “We are really excited to have been given this funding. It will provide us with the space to be able to review what support groups in Fenland need now and coming out of COVID, and ensure the Support Cambridgeshire partners are equipped and ready to meet that need.”