Fifty three fantastic East Devon coronavirus related projects have now been funded by the Covid-19 Fund, a joint grants scheme from East Devon District Council and Devon County Council.

Some 19 grants have been handed out in the most recent, third wave of funding. They are:

• Ottery Help Scheme – £700 for PPE and telephone befriending particularly for those with dementia.

• Colyton Caterpillars – £700 towards home resources plus a support worker for advice and help, as well as resources to provide physical exercise for children.

• Axminster and Lyme Cancer Support – £500 to help pay for weekly delivery of art and craft kits, magazines, books and jigsaws to improve mental wellbeing.

• Parental Minds CIC – £600 to provide wellbeing workshops to tackle mental health issues within families.

• Sidmouth Hospice at Home – £685 for a laptop and PPE for volunteers while driving patients to appointments.

• Sidmouth Voluntary Services – £700 to help pay for packaging for meals and PPE for the volunteers.

• Westbank Healthy Neighbourhoods project – £700 towards volunteer expenses and materials for the activity club for the aged.

• Axewoods Co-operative – £300 to pay mileage expenses to members to deliver logs around the region.

• Mill Water School – £700 towards travel costs for staff who are delivering teaching resources to pupils’ doorsteps.

• Budleigh Hub, Westbank – £700 for transport of vulnerable people for their Covid vaccinations from their homes.

• Estuary League of Friends – £700 for transport of vulnerable people for their Covid vaccinations from their homes.

• Open Arms East Devon – £700 for a printer and tablet to support group for adults experiencing mental health difficulties.

• Ottery Community Volunteers – £700 for a tablet in the office so that everyone can see what bookings have been made.

• Jelly South West CIC – £180 towards Zoom costs for providing business support.

• Arc (Axminster) Ltd – £700 of funding to increase capacity to be able to deliver vital trauma treatment.

• Youth Genesis Trust Ltd – £120 of funding for online quizzes for young people with support workers.

• Waffle Work/Lawson Computer Repair – £500 for costs to refurbish PCs and the purchase of Windows 10 licences and small parts to give to the local community.

• Devon in Sight – £700 towards emotional and wellbeing counselling for those with little or no sight.

• TRIP Community Transport – £600 towards administration and staff costs for volunteer cars for medical appointments.

Cllr Jack Rowland, East Devon District Council’s portfolio holder for finance and chair of the Community Grants Fund, said: “One of the positives that has emerged over the past year since Covid-19 struck is the even stronger community spirit across the whole district, with people willing to volunteer to help others in multiple ways.

“The examples shown really illustrate this and I know personally, being a volunteer with the Seaton RE:STORE Community Group that benefitted from a grant award and also in the past as a volunteer driver for Trip Community Transport, how great a demand there is in the district for this type of assistance.”

Cllr Rowland added: “I applaud all the volunteer groups across East Devon for the invaluable help they are providing and encourage other volunteer groups who qualify, but may not have applied yet to do so.”

Councillor Roger Croad, Devon County Council cabinet member for communities, said: “It’s been a difficult year for everyone and it’s important that we continue to help communities to support the vulnerable. There is some excellent work going on to maintain people’s physical and mental wellbeing while they are isolated.

“We hope that the Covid-19 Fund will provide rapid and flexible financial support to better enable community groups to tackle some of the issues they face safely and in the ways that work best for them.”

The fund provides small grants, typically between £300 and £700. People running community-led coronavirus related projects and activities supporting vulnerable people are invited to apply. The fund is still open to applications. You can find out more and apply at this website: https://www.devon.gov.uk/coronavirus-advice-in-devon/document/covid-19-fund/