The Jason Roberts Foundation (JRF) has been awarded a grant of £5000 from the London Community Response Fund, administered by City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, towards the costs of providing on-line services for young people and their families during the Covid-19 crisis.
Roberts played for Bristol Rovers, West Brom, Wigan and Blackburn among others. He was capped 12 times by Grenada and is now director of development at Concacaf.
In response to the current crisis the Foundation explored new and safe ways to reach and engage with the children and young people they usually support through the programmes they deliver, and to provide them with useful information and content that was educational and might create opportunities.
Learning disabilities
One of these ideas was a podcast series entitled You Are Not Alone for children and young people with physical and learning disabilities, to support families during lockdown who were suddenly having to do what the schools and support services had done, with no respite. The podcast gave them the platform to talk to the teachers and organisations who were happy to share intervention strategies and point to physical resources.
Otis Roberts, CEO of JRF said: “We knew we had to find new ways to engage with and support our young participants (during lockdown), to let them know they are not alone, to give them a platform and a voice, and importantly, a means for them to reach us.
“We were delighted to be awarded this grant to enable us to develop our digital services and support more people.”
London’s funders are working together to provide coordinated funding to support groups responding to the needs of communities in the capital affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over £22m in funding has been distributed through the London Community Response (LCR) to support the capital’s civil society organisations since opening for applications four days after lockdown started.
The LCR is an unprecedented funder collaboration – over 60 funders have come together from across sectors, recognising that it was vital to distribute grants quickly based on shared intelligence and processes.
Supported
Stewart Goshawk, Chief Executive Officer of Wembley National Stadium Trust “WNST is pleased to have supported the work of the Jason Roberts Foundation for a number of years now.
“Recently, the Trust has been able to make a small number of grants as part of the London Community Response Fund, including one to JRF, which is helping it to run on-line sessions supporting local people through coronavirus crisis.
“We know how valuable this work will be for residents living in difficult circumstances, looking for help and guidance in these challenging times. We wish JRF every success with this important initiative.”
