Warwickshire County Council continues to support families in need during this period of lockdown and school closures. Families facing unavoidable hardship are urged to reach out for help ...
Warwickshire County Council continues to support families in need during this period of lockdown and school closures.
Families facing unavoidable hardship are urged to reach out for help from the council’s Local Welfare Scheme which can put them in touch with a wide range of available support.
The Local Welfare Scheme, which has been in place for a number of years, provides financial and practical assistance to help families and individuals in crisis to access food, heating and essential items when they have no other means of help.
It connects people with immediate support available from other public, community and voluntary services around the county and services which provide longer term solutions. This includes debt and money management advice, family information and support, help to access food and household essentials and local emotional health and wellbeing services.
The Scheme also administers Warwickshire’s share of the government’s Covid-19 Winter Grant Scheme which has been used in Warwickshire to support children, families and the most vulnerable over winter with proactive support given to families eligible for benefits-related free school meals.
Cllr Heather Timms, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Heritage & Culture said: “The council’s Local Welfare Scheme offers support to those in unavoidable crisis with no other means of help either directly or through extensive links with a range of support services in the county.
“We have been working tirelessly with the district and borough councils; voluntary groups; foodbanks and others since the start of the pandemic to ensure we can do our best to assist vulnerable residents. I strongly encourage people who are struggling right now to look online and get in touch, either for themselves or on behalf of someone else, to find out what help there is.”
In another project to support residents to access food, the county council led an initiative to allocate central government funding to community groups which could evidence sustainable food provision in local areas. Last year, the council worked in partnership with the districts and boroughs to invite funding bids from the community and the Emergency Access funding for Food and Essential Supplies was shared between 29 successful projects.
Each bid met specific criteria to offer benefits to vulnerable people and provide innovative and sustainable approaches to address food poverty during these difficult times. The varied schemes are now reaching out to hundreds of people in need across the county offering food and healthy eating education. The funding is supporting community cafes, the provision of fruit and veg bags, a community kitchen, mobile food banks, expansion of local food banks to provide chilled food and much more. You can read about three of the projects here:
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Time Out North Warwickshire
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The Guardians Grow Community Group Nuneaton and Bedworth
Further support continues to be invested a number of areas including: specific food projects, food for the homeless, food banks and supporting infrastructure and this work will continue through the Warwickshire Food Forum.
To find out more or apply for support, call the Local Welfare Scheme on 0800 408 1448 or 01926 359182 or go to www.warwickshire.go.uk/localwelfarescheme or www.warwickshire.gov.uk/facinghardship