Bank of Ireland donate €150,000 to  the Community Foundation Coronavirus Community Fund 

3 Apr 2020

Bank of Ireland have donated €150,000 in support of local charities and community organisations assisting vulnerable individuals and groups through challenges faced by the Coronavirus. 

The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland will receive €100,000 towards the Coronavirus Community Fund and Aware Northern Ireland and Cruse Bereavement Care NI received an additional €25,000 each from the bank.  

Aware NI is seeking to address the mental health challenges that Covid-19 will present over coming months.  This €25,000 will enable their two projects to expand to better support people with depression and bi-polar disorder: The AWARE Mindfulness Programme and the Mood Matters Programme.

Cruse Bereavement Care NI is proposing to set up a Bereavement Befrienders project for people aged over 60+. Members of the Friendship Groups and bereavement volunteers aged over 60+ will provide befriending over the telephone for those going through a loss as a result of Coronavirus.

Ian McLaughlin, CEO Retail UK, “Across the country we are seeing extraordinary acts of human endeavour as communities come together to help and support one another through these most difficult and challenging of times.” 

“We are part of the community here in Northern Ireland and we want to do what we can to help those most in need. Working in partnership with the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland will enable us to reach the most vulnerable quickly and fund those charities and organisations on the ground who will provide invaluable support in the coming weeks and months.”          

Andrew Mccracken, CEO Community Foundation, “This is a time of crisis and we must work with communities to support each other especially those most at. They need help now, so we’ve structured the Coronavirus Community Fund to ensure communities have access to this emergency funding getting support to the vulnerable as quickly as possible. In just two weeks we have supported over 150 groups awarding £365,000 of emergency funding to communities across Northern Ireland.” 

Groups wishing to apply for funding please click here. 

You can donate to the Coronavirus Community fund here.