Good afternoon,

You are receiving this update because you are a member, customer, client or key contact of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), one of our services including Funding Scotland, Goodmoves and Third Force News, or because you recently signed up to receive SCVO’s coronavirus updates.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is committed to support the voluntary sector through the coronavirus pandemic.  We have set up this bulletin to share important information with you including funding announcements. If you wish to continue to receive it please do nothing. If you wish to stop receiving it please click the link at the bottom of this email.

Help & advice for employees

Citizens Advice Scotland has created a section on their website with lots of useful information for employees who have been impacted by coronavirus, which covers everything from bills to benefits.

Look after your mental wellbeing

It’s always important to look after your mental health, but even more so at times like these when we are all faced with uncertainty and isolation. The Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) also has a dedicated web page with resources to help people maintain good mental health during the ongoing pandemic, including blogs, guided meditation and a wellbeing assessment tool.

Funding for organisations

Various funds have been announced recently to help organisations deal with the impact of coronavirus on services:

• Third Sector Resilience Fund – a £20m emergency fund for charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations which find themselves in financial difficulties directly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Community Response, Recovery & Resilience Fund – the National Emergencies Trust has set up a Coronavirus Appeal to raise funds for local charities and grassroots organisations that can provide vital support – funds for Scottish organisations will be distributed by Foundation Scotland.
• Creative Scotland – three funding programmes have been launched to help provide further support to sustain the country’s creative community impacted by coronavirus.
• CAF Coronavirus Emergency Fund – grants of up to £10,000 to help smaller organisations to continue to deliver much needed support. 

Further funding information and links are available on the Coronavirus Third Sector Information Hub funding page.

Scotland Cares volunteer campaign

A new ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign has been launched to encourage people to volunteer during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

While the most important ask for the public remains to stay at home and follow the essential public health guidance, people who are healthy and not at risk can volunteer to provide practical or emotional help to those most in need, via the Ready Scotland website.

Community Assistance Directory 

If you work or volunteer for an organisation in need of support or that is able to offer support to others in response to coronavirus, you can find and give help in this new official website which collates offers and requests of support from across the country. 

Online events & webinars

We have created an events calendar in our guidance & support page in an attempt to capture any online events set up in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Scotland’s third sector.

If your organisation is hosting a webinar, online course or seminar on this topic and would like to promote it, please contact us with details.

What you can do to help

• Continue to stay at home if you can, look after yourself and your family, and follow official guidance.
• Visit our Coronavirus Third Sector Information Hub for information, guidance and resource
• Share this bulletin with your colleagues and contacts – they can also sign up for it here.
• Share your organisations’ experiences and challenges at experience@scvo.org.uk to help inform our work.