28th July, 2020
The Sharpham Trust has received £50,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help the charity weather the current Covid-19 crisis.
Since the pandemic and lockdown began, The Trust has lost almost 50% of this year’s income after having to close for four months due to the virus.
The charity had to stop its programme of mindfulness retreats, nature events and volunteering schemes, postpone weddings and venue hires of Sharpham House, it had to limit mourners at its natural burial ground Sharpham Meadow and furlough its staff.
Post-lockdown, The Trust has had to halve the numbers allowed on retreat and introduce a range of measures including additional cleaning and use of PPE in order to make its Sharpham House, Woodland retreat & Barn venues Covid-secure.
“This grant is great news,” said Julian Carnell, Trust Director. “Thanks to the National Lottery, we’ve been given help with some of the extra costs of reopening under the current government guidelines.
“We have just run our first retreat since March and the feedback from participants was excellent. Many were very grateful for the opportunity to return to Sharpham and benefit from time on retreat.
“We have so far managed to retain all our staff and we hope we can avoid any redundancies,” he added. “We’re grateful that The National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time.”
The funding, made possible by National Lottery players, was awarded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund. £50million has been made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector. The UK-wide fund will address both immediate emergency actions and help organisations to start thinking about recovery.
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing. All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.
“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as The Sharpham Trust during this uncertain time.”
Like The Sharpham Trust, other charities and organisations across the UK that have been affected by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus outbreak are being given access to a comprehensive package of support of up to £600 million of repurposed money from The National Lottery. This money is supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and span the arts, community, charity, heritage, education, environment and sports sectors.
Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including heritage of local and national importance. By playing The National Lottery, people up and down the country are making an amazing contribution to the nationwide-response to combatting the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across the UK.
To find out more about the National Lottery Good Causes, visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive change for people and communities, now and in the future.
www.heritagefund.org.uk #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
Extra advice and support and longer-term skills and capacity building initiatives has been made available for the heritage sector. Read more about The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s response to the Covid-19 emergency.
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