Oxfordshire Homeless Movement (OHM) is appealing to local residents, visitors and workers to help them ensure no-one has to sleep rough in our county in 2021 and beyond.
Around 60 donors and supporters gathered on Zoom for our first ever online Giving Tuesday event. They heard from philanthropists who have chosen to support OCF, such as Will and Fran Perrin, about the importance of giving locally, and discovered more about our COVID response and strategic programmes.
Every pound donated up to £30,000 will be doubled to help disadvantaged communities improve children’s school readiness with our match-funding initiative on The Good Exchange. The match starts on Giving Tuesday and runs for the next 10 months.
After the initial shock of lockdown, families taking part in OCF’s Growing Minds early years programme are adapting to the ‘new normal’: social distancing, fewer face-to-face services, and rapid acceleration in the development of online services.
In August, we invited small charities and community groups to apply for up to £2,000 of grant funding to support grassroots responses to the pandemic. The scale of applications received shows that the immediate crisis is far from over, and that communities urgently need more financial support.
Local charity Active Oxfordshire is promoting the ‘Mayathon’ challenge, which encourages people to take on 26 minutes of activity every day throughout May, ending with a ‘Finish Line Finale’ on 26th May at 2pm. Sponsorship funds are being raised towards OCF’s Community Resilience Fund.
Donors to the Step Change Fund were to gather on 7th May to hear from Project Managers and charity leaders about the impact of their philanthropy. Instead, an annual review and impact summary celebrate the achievements of the fund.
Oxford University shows its support for OCF with a cyber security presentation at a recent webinar and by providing community support and funding.
Following the launch of OCF’s new Community Resilience Fund, over £100,000 has already been awarded to support local community and voluntary organisations meeting the new needs and challenges created by the coronavirus.
Lady Sylvia Jay, High Sheriff of Oxfordshire 2019 /20 distributed funds raised during her year as a last official act. Meanwhile, the new High Sheriff Amanda Ponsonby had her swearing in ‘ceremony’ in her kitchen!