Dorset Community Foundation has used funding from Barclays to support groups that are helping their communities cope with the fallout from the pandemic.

The bank awarded more than £12,000 as part of a wider aid package to UK community foundations to support charities nationwide.

The foundation’s own Dorset Coronavirus Community Appeal has already distributed £800,000 through more than 200 grants to groups across the county.

The Barclays donation was used as part of its second phase of grants.

Support groups helped included:

• Counselling Together: £1,000 to help subsidise sessions for people who have been pulled into poverty by the virus. The grant will be used in the Christchurch area.
• Ferndown Community Coronavirus Support: £1,500 towards mileage expenses for volunteers who are doing shopping, collecting prescriptions, walking pets and befriending more than 250 vulnerable and elderly people in the area. The grant will also be used to set up a community fridge for low income families.
• It’s All About Culture, Boscombe: £2,000 to help the BAME group, which covers Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, equip its popular Multicultural Hub in the Sovereign Centre with hot water in the kitchen and toilets and a new fridge.
• Team Dorset Athletics Network: £2,000 to hire venues for its disability groups in Poole and Dorchester to have socially-distanced training sessions. The grant will also pay for protective and sports equipment and travel costs.
• The Burrough Harmony Centre, Bridport: Supports adults with mental health issues and awarded £2,000 to provide more help for carers who, the group says, are often neglected.
• The Nest Social Supermarket: £2,000 to set up at the Waverley Community Hub in Weymouth. The supermarket will sell low-cost food to people in poverty, including those who have lost their jobs or are coming out of furlough, using food donated by supermarkets and producers.
• TRIP Community Transport, Honiton: £1,000 to continue its service in West Dorset ferrying elderly and vulnerable people to medical appointments in volunteers’ cars or in wheelchair-accessible transport.
• The Vale Pantry, Sturminster Newton: £2,000 grant to the Vale Charitable Trust. It plans to set up a low-cost shop where low-income families can pay a nominal fee every week to choose a number of items donated by supermarkets via the Fare Share scheme.

Neil Cradock, pictured left, Barclays Wealth Manager, Dorset, said: “By reaching those most in need of support, local charities have played a vital role in this crisis to date, and no doubt they will do going forward.

“As a proud member of our community, we are doing everything we can for our customers, clients and colleagues.

“We hope that our partnership with Dorset Community Foundation will allow many others to access the help they need as this crisis develops.”

Grant Robson, pictured right, Chief Executive, Dorset Community Foundation, said: “We are very thankful to Barclays for its contribution, which will make a huge difference to all of these brilliant groups who are facing the challenges of the pandemic head on and really meeting the needs in their communities.”

• To find out more about the Dorset Coronavirus Community Fund, make a donation or apply for a grant, please go to: dorsetcommunityfoundation.org/