Fundraising

Supporting WWA members with income generation during the pandemic

Updated 29th May 2020

During the difficult period of the coronavirus pandemic, Welsh Women’s Aid is listening to members’ concerns about having to incur new and additional costs in order to continue delivering lifesaving services to survivors of gender-based violence.

We are collating information from members through regular meetings, surveys and information requests in order to communicate your concerns to the Welsh and UK Governments, police and other national services. We have raised members’ concerns about the lack of direct funding for the sector and continue to make a case for this in Wales. If there are specific costs or income loss that you haven’t already told us about, please contact: [email protected] The more accurate and up to date we information we have, the better case we can make for your services.

We have compiled funding opportunities relevant to your work:

• Covid 19 Support Grants for Wales – download
• Covid 19 Member Funding Opportunities – download

We can also provide you with templates and support around putting applications together. We are in communication with large funders about all Wales funding for our members. We will keep you updated as things progress.

Welsh Women’s Aid stresses urgent need for funding for support services due to COVID-19 (24 April, 2020)

Today, we have publicly released our letter to Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt stating that we are deeply concerned that despite previous correspondence with Welsh Government, there has been no ringfenced emergency funding provided to specialist support services to meet the needs of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Services providing violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV) support across Wales are in urgent need of ring-fenced emergency funding. The funding that has been announced so far are existing funds announced in December, pre-allocated on pre-existing needs prior to COVID 19. This is hugely troubling, as a survey of specialist services in Wales has confirmed that at least 90% of services are incurring additional costs due the circumstances caused by COVID-19.

Additional flexible funding must now be provided to the VAWDASV specialist sector.

The letter sets out why the VAWDASV specialist sector requires:

1. A ring-fenced pot of funding for VAWDASV specialist services at least equivalent to funding being invested elsewhere in the UK.
2. A clear plan to replace the funding that has been repurposed to meet the impact of COVID-19.
3. Funding that can be flexibly utilised for revenue and support costs – current funding only covers capital costs and not the additional costs to meet the support needs of survivors.
4. Swift access to funding. In Scotland, £1.5 million was provided with immediate effect to invest in support needs as and when they developed, recognising that services have to be responsive to changing needs and do not have capacity to fill in endless application forms.

Read our letter and full press release outlining our concerns and recommendations here:

Full letter to Welsh Government Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, Jane Hutt

Full press release: Welsh Women’s Aid stresses urgent need for funding for support services due to COVID-19

£500 million Economic Resilience Fund launched for Wales

First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced a new £500 million fund to provide extra support to the Welsh economy, businesses and charities experiencing a sharp drop in trading as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We will keep you updated as more details emerge.

VAWDASV Funding globally

There is precedence of some countries providing additional funding for the specialist violence against women and girls sector. For example, the Scottish Government allocated £1.3 million to be distributed to groups and services. In Canada, $26m was allocated to be distribute to frontline services – shelters were given $32,000 to maintain staffing, purchase equipment (particularly for children) and support food security. Increased resources have also been made available for accommodation in Australia.

• 

  25 June, 2020

  Major Reform of Family Courts Set to Give Domestic Abuse Survivors Greater Protection.

• 

  15 May, 2020

  COVID-19 Guidance and Advice for Survivors and Support Networks

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  07 May, 2020

  Treating Violence Against Women and Girls as a Pandemic- an interview with our CEO

• 

  28 April, 2020

  A Survivor in Isolation- A Blog

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  24 April, 2020

  Welsh Women’s Aid stresses urgent need for funding for support services due to COVID-19

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  17 April, 2020

  Welsh Women’s Aid welcomes new CEO