The Eden Project Communities Big Lunch came to Banbury on a very sunny Saturday in late May. Lots of smaller community and street based lunches had already been held and by joining the Big Lunch they were able to scale up, create a bigger event and bring the whole town together.
Getting Court, an Oxford based charity that is funded by donations which are held and managed by OCF, are hosting an event on Tuesday 4th June at 5.30pm to focus on County Lines and Knife Crime in Oxfordshire. Two Oxford judges will give an insight into these two major areas of concern.
HRH the Duke of Sussex met the Thrive Teams, a charity working in Barton, the Leys and South Abingdon, at Barton Neighbourhood Centre as the final part of his visit to Oxford last week. Young people from the initiative took part in a building bridges game to demonstrate some of the work they do to create ‘the next generation of role models’.
A lack of affordable housing is one of Oxfordshire’s key issues, leading in part, to the problems of homelessness locally. A gift of property, used for social good, can have much more impact as a charity donation.
A campaign was launched by OCF in December 2018, offering to match any public donations to Oxford Poverty Action Trust (OxPAT) pound for pound until January. OxPAT is a local charity with a 20-year history of giving funding to the key charities helping homeless people in Oxford.
OCF awarded grants, totalling over £76,500 and supporting over 26,000 people, as part of a funding round aimed at combating loneliness and isolation in Oxfordshire.
Lady Jay of Ewelme CBE has been sworn in as the 2019/20 High Sheriff of Oxfordshire. During her year, Sylvia hopes to raise awareness of issues to do with crime and punishment, and of work done by many voluntary, charitable and statutory bodies in our community to prevent criminal behaviour.
OCF has now opened the next round in our Delivering Impact grants programme, which will focus on community friendship. We are seeking to award grants that bring people from different backgrounds together. We will invest up to £10k.
As Kate Parrinder, our Marketing Communications Manager, starts a year of maternity leave, we welcome three new staff to our OCF marketing team.
The Oxford Homeless Movement partnership, which currently brings together 35 different organisations working with homeless people, is looking at solutions for groups of people that existing services find it difficult to engage with, such as women.