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.
How can we ensure that no school-age child in Oxfordshire falls further behind due to lack of digital resources? Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF) commissioned Oxford University’s Student Consultancy to measure the size of the digital exclusion problem, and consider solutions.
Following positive and constructive feedback from our survey, OCF’s webinars series will continue over the coming months, taking a deep dive into issues affecting our communities in the fall-out of COVID-19. We talk to subject-matter experts, charities on the frontline and funders about how we can bring people together to tackle isolation, homelessness, educational disadvantage and digital exclusion, whilst facing up to the economic fallout of the crisis.
Having made online statistical mapping tool Local Insights freely available in April, we have now updated the data sets and area reports. The latest data is showing the economic impacts of COVID-19 locally.
Could you take three minutes to complete our survey and help shape future webinars?
OCF has lost one of its most influential and important supporters in Jane Wates OBE, who passed away last week. Jane dedicated her life to philanthropy, showing lifelong compassion for others and a dedication to sharing her time to make the world a better place.
Following the lockdown of educational and childcare services in March, think tanks and educators alike have predicted the widening of the attainment gap for disadvantaged children. Growing Minds has quickly responded, adapting the project to offer the best support to our families during lockdown, and planning for a more challenging future.
It is with huge sadness that we hear of the death of OCF’s treasured Patron Jane Wates OBE earlier this week. Jane has been a fundamental part of OCF’s success over 25 years.
Oxford City Council has secured 124 rooms of interim housing for the next year, meaning that there need be no return to the streets for former rough sleepers currently housed in hotels and student blocks.
The Board is looking for an outstanding leader to realise the strategic vision for Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF) at a time which is challenging but also a time that will present new opportunities. The role of OCF in support of the Oxfordshire charitable sector is particularly important as the country starts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.