Edinburgh 29th June 2020,
The Welcoming Association is continuing to support our community during the COVID-19 crisis, thanks to National Lottery funding.
We have received £21, 000.00 from The National Lottery Community Fund to employ a Volunteer Coordinator who will support our 80+ dedicated volunteers and who will also help us adapt our volunteer processes to offer distance support, such as online peer group sessions and training.
The Welcoming Association already received a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCB) to support the Befriending Programme. These additional funds will cover costs associated with our community response to the current crisis.
Nick Croft, Chair of the Welcoming Association Board of Directors acknowledges that “The last few months have been challenging for many of the people we try to help, and Covid19 has made it even harder. This additional funding from the National Lottery Community Fund would allow us to employ a coordinator who will support our 80+ dedicated volunteers.
The Welcoming is lucky to attract so many volunteers. The difficulty we were experiencing until now was the lack of a dedicated post who can support the volunteers and coordinate their work. The additional funding from the NLCB would, therefore, help us to address the challenge mentioned above”.
Neil Ritch, Scotland Director, The National Lottery Community Fund, says: “In these uncertain times our priority is to ensure that National Lottery money continues to flow to charities, voluntary sector organisations and grassroots groups. I would like to congratulate The Welcoming Association on the work they are doing. Theirs is an important project that will support people now during the current crisis, and in the future when they can physically come back together to make great things happen in their community.”