ABCFund News, Local charity article

Looking back and looking ahead

We want to start off by wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

2022 was a good year for us, and we have brought smiles to some 1000 people in a challenging year. We know there are still tough times ahead.

We’ve managed a few fundraising and networking events, and our profile is spreading. We were lucky enough to attract funding enabling us to provide the following:

● A trip to meet the Easter Bunny on the Chichester canal for 36 children & their families

● 100 Easter craft bags were distributed to local children

● We topped up the Play Team cupboard at The Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital with bubbles, arts & crafts, games, books, crayons, etc., to the tune of £800

● 200 wristbands for a day out on the Brighton Pier ● 100 vouchers for Knockhatch ● We paid for a group of disabled children to go to Middle Farm for the day and provided ice cream. Christmas is always our busiest time, 2022 being no exception, and we provided the following:

● 100 x £40 food hampers to go to families in need ● 404 pantomime seats were purchased to see Aladdin in Eastbourne, and a chocolate box for every child

● We met Father Christmas on the Chichester Canal 32-seater boat.

Looking ahead to 2023, we plan to continue running our days out and organising Christmas events.

The Committee would like to thank everyone who has continued to work hard in many ways supporting all that we do. Your help and support are invaluable, and we are very grateful to you.

Please take a look at our newly designed website where you will be able to catch up with our news.

www.abcfund.org info@abcfund.org

Local charity appeal to the Government

A charity that scaled up its operations to support the community through the pandemic crisis is asking MPs to push the government to pay out the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

This will enable hundreds of local authorities and notfor-profit organisations to start vital planned projects to help residents through the winter. The Fund announced in 2017 as a part-replacement of European Union funding that started to end in May this year, leaving a gap in the resources many organisations were using to support communities most at risk.

"Our resources were stretched ten times further than expected during the lockdown period", said Paula Woolven, Founder of Havens Community Hub in Newhaven. "It wasn't a case of 'we can't' but a case of 'we will, somehow', with the support of volunteers and local donors".

"Coming out of the pandemic, we are hit with a perfect storm of recovery plus the cost of living crisis. We were encouraged by the announcement of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and delighted to be selected by Lewes District Council as a funded project to create further vital help in a vastly undersupported area Peacehaven and the surrounding towns and villages. Local authorities are doing the 'heavy lifting’ of ensuring the projects are viable and doing their due diligence. Unfortunately, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have failed to meet their timescale of 'rubber stamping' the projects by the start of October and starting to issue the funding from the end of October."

Local authorities have reported a 'deafening silence' to requests for information about when the central government will release funding. The longer it's delayed, the more costs are being added to the projects due to the unprecedented rise in interest rates and inflation, leaving some asset-based projects in danger of not being financially viable. "Thankfully, the costs of our project are not rising as quickly as asset-based projects would be," said Paula, "as the community has pledged its support. However, it is frustrating knowing we could be helping more people at a time when help is most needed."