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Rapid Response Fund: Grants Awarded

Photo of Hannah Gibney Hannah Gibney
39 min

The Advisory Board has been humbled that, through your giving, we have been able to collaboratively contribute to bringing practical help and gospel hope in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.

We are honoured to partner with ministries making incredible, timely and innovative impact in such challenging times. These grants include supporting vulnerable children and young people, addressing mental health and wellbeing issues, providing bereavement support and amplifying Gospel hope through online prayer and evangelism. We believe this portfolio of giving truly reflects our collective desire to meet practical need with Gospel hope for our nation and our dream is that there will continue to be an impact, despite the fact that fund is now closed.

We launched this fund with a Webinar on 27 March 2020. Over 100 days later we have funded together 99 organisations totalling £4.8m. The activities have included:

  • 1000 churches mobilised;

  • 1.2 million moments with the Gospel;

  • 400 deprived children reached;

  • 10,000+ prayers;

  • 20,000 seekers to be reached in 14 cities;

  • Food for the hungry and fellowship for the lonely in 7 cities;

  • 186 support groups;

  • 1471 people fed each week in Cambridge;

  • ’10,000 lives’ impacted in Northern Ireland;

  • 257 CAP centres and 1,186 vulnerable families helped;

  • Food for 400 homeless in Wales;

  • Mental health support for 8,000+ youths; and

  • New specific resources to comfort the bereaved of this pandemic.

…and so much more. The Church is truly rising to the challenge of this pandemic; praise the Lord!

We hope these stories of lives transformed will encourage you as much as they have encouraged us.

Kids Matter

kidsmatter.org.uk

Kids Matter engages local churches to equip parents and carers facing disadvantages with confidence, competence and community, enabling their children to thrive. The impact of COVID-19 on families is significant. Child suffering was already increasing at an alarming rate with more than four million children growing up in poverty; life in lockdown and the subsequent economic and social consequences to it will push many disadvantaged families beyond breaking point and into crisis. Kids Matter are answering the crisis with adjusted services and plans to meet the needs of existing clients as well as reaching  new children this year. Our grant has energised this amazing charity’s Covid response impacting hundreds of disadvantaged children.

GRANT AWARDED: £39,000

IMPACT UPDATE: OVER 400 ADDITIONAL CHILDREN ARE ALREADY RECEIVING HELP AS A RESULT OF YOUR GRANT.

24-7 Prayer

24-7prayer.com

24-7 prayer is responding to a significant surge in in demand for resources and support for churches, individuals and gospel ministries in the UK and around the globe as a result of COVID-19. Their response includes hosting prayer meetings online, equipping the churches for mission and justice with their devotional app Lectio 365 and developing resources for 'Prayer Spaces at Home’ helping to equip families to pray in this time of isolation. Our grant completed their funding program needed for Lectio 365, their Covid prayer resources for homes and schools on their website and their ‘praying through the storm’ devotionals on the

YouVersion bible app.

GRANT AWARDED: £75,000

IMPACT UPDATE: THESE RESOURCES ARE ALREADY REACHING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF THOSE SEEKING SUPPORT FOR THEIR PRAYER LIVES.

Alpha UK

alpha.org

Over 24 million people have tried Alpha in over 100 countries, and it has been translated into over 100 different languages. Developed as a short course at HTB in London, in 1990 Nicky Gumbel took over running Alpha and found that many people outside of the church wanted to explore the Christian faith. Alpha now runs in every part of the global church, including the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and all mainline Protestant denominations. In the time of COVID-19 Alpha has moved online. Your grant will support an outreach campaign in response to the coronavirus crisis to reach 20,000 seekers in 14 cities across our nation with online Alpha resources.

GRANT AWARDED: £100,000

Church Revitalisation Trust (CRT)

crtrust.org

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, CRT have launched a national campaign called #LoveYourNeighbour that sees their network of churches partnering with local food banks, delivering meals and medications, organising telephone calls to those isolated and vulnerable, alongside partnering with the NHS to volunteer in hospitals and encouraging much-needed community in creative ways. This grant will support the development of these services in seven local churches.

GRANT AWARDED: £75,000

Kintsugi Hope

kintsugihope.com

Kintsugi Hope provides resources and training for churches to establish face to face support groups for mental wellbeing. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have adapted their courses to make wellbeing groups now available online. This grant will allow this team to deliver this support to 186 groups and provide online support to many more needing to deal with the mental health issues of these challenging times.

GRANT AWARDED: £25,000

C3 Cambridge

thec3.uk

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic C3 Church launched their Love Your Neighbour campaign and (at time of application) had delivered 448 food hampers, impacting 1471 people and providing 7044 meals. C3 will continue to provide these meals initially for a three month period to meet the demand from individuals and families suffering poverty in the Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds area. Your grant provided one third of the cost of this service so completing C3’s funding for this response.

GRANT AWARDED: £15,000

FURTHER GRANT AWARDED: £22,500

Crown Jesus Ministries

crownjesus.org

Established for 21 years in Northern Ireland with a clear mission to communicate the good news of Jesus in a real and relevant way. They were about to launch '10,000 Lives' in Lisburn City, working with 15 churches and 40 school classes, when COVID-19 hit – they have rapidly adapted this program for our times. This grant will contribute to the purchase of a van for the Lisburn Foodbank (which works with 27 Churches, 80 charities and 14 schools) and to provide mental health support in Lisburn city. They are truly pursuing providing practical help and the hope of the gospel in Northern Ireland.

GRANT AWARDED: £62,000

Christians Against Poverty

capuk.org/

Christians Against Poverty are on a mission to release thousands of families from grinding poverty through award winning debt counselling and community groups, the COVID-19 crisis will bring a tsunami of need to CAP’s door. By equipping and empowering local churches to reach out on their doorsteps, they bring hope to tens of thousands of people every year. During this time the vital need is to support those who have the least margins and resilience in the crisis and so are creating expanded capacity to meet these needs. This grant will go to boost support to the 267 debt centres during the lockdown period and to 1,186 particularly vulnerable clients where it will go some way to helping  keep the lights on,  afford food and know that their homes are secure.

GRANT AWARDED: £250,000

Glenwood Church

glenwoodchurch.org

Glenwood is situated on a Cardiff housing estate of over 40,000 people and faces out towards the Welsh Valleys. The community they serve is in the 10% of most deprived areas in Wales and 35% of households are in income poverty with in income 60% below Great Britain median. In response to COVID-19, Cardiff City Council has asked the church to provide meals for homeless people house in temporary accommodation. Over 400 meals per week provided by volunteers at the time of application. This grant will be used to upgrade the kitchen facilities and staffing to meet the increasing needs of the local community.

GRANT AWARDED: £60,000

FURTHER GRANT AWARDED: £12,000

Youthscape

youthscape.co.uk

Youthscape is a 26 year old youth ministry based in Luton but operating nationally to support world class youth ministry. They have been working with The Mind and Soul Foundation to create a vital new gospel based work to deliver a Christian response to youth mental health issues. This grant will fund this work in light of the urgent need for this ministry in response to COVID-19. They are launching BeHeadstrong.org. Designed directly for young people, primarily on a mobile platform. Young people can interact with Christian doctors, medical experts and youth workers and content is fused with the hope, new identity and the promise of redemption that Jesus brings, speaking directly into the issues raised by the pandemic. They are focusing on bringing together a missional and unifying tool that will aim to reach 8,000 young people per week through the online tool and over 100 Churches. This will bring much needed help in the areas of mental health and spiritual wellbeing.  

GRANT AWARDED: £90,000

Jubilee +

jubilee-plus.org/

The aim of Jubilee+ is to see the Church in the UK be a champion of the poor and a means to healthy communities across the nation. Jubilee+ has already embarked upon an ambitious programme of changing from a face-to face to a digital delivery. It has made steady but comparably slow progress and the support received from this grant will help with the online delivery of vital services to vulnerable people

GRANT AWARDED: £12,738

 

Care For The Family

careforthefamily.org.uk

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be an immediate increase in demand for bereavement care and support – to a level that the UK will not have witnessed since the late 1940’s. This will lead to an unprecedented demand and pressure placed on those organisations or communities who are seen as cornerstone of family or bereavement care and support, such as Care for the Family and the local church. The need for training, education, support and counselling through traditional resources, communication channels, local communities and digital resources will be greater than ever and Care for the Family is looking to provide those services.

GRANT AWARDED: £110,000

 

Yourneighbour.org

yourneighbour.org

A new online initiative from the Good Faith Foundation directly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The website provides direct support to equip church leaders with the latest updates and resources and connects people in need to churches. Our grant was instrumental in the launch of this outreach initiative.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

FURTHER GRANT AWARDED: £75,000

 

Spring Harvest Home

springharvest.org

Following the cancellation of the in-person events the Spring Harvest team stepped out in faith with the aim to provide gospel hope and teaching to a the church on a global scale. They created ‘Spring Harvest Home’ in a matter of weeks and provided a full week of online content. Our grant funded the incremental cost

of taking the event on-line with spectacular results.

GRANT AWARDED: £76,900

 

Acts 435

acts435.org.uk

Acts 435 is an online giving charity, directly connecting those who want to give with those who are in genuine and immediate need, through a network of local churches and charities. This grant will enable Acts 435 to create a small fund that will provide support of between £150 and £1,000 for those most in need. The grant will provide financial aid specifically for those suffering as a result of Covid-19, this could include helping with funeral costs, rent, food, replacement of essential equipment e.g. shower, fridge etc. The mechanism of Acts 435 also provides space for community to be built around the generosity shown and is showing a hugely positive impact on the individuals’ self-esteem as well as being an incredible witness of the local church reaching out to meet need and showing God’s love in action.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Betel

www.betel.uk

Betel is a Christian charity that takes in ex-offending and substance-dependent people, often off the streets, and delivers a successful recovery programme through a model that harmonises church-planting, residential community living and charitable businesses to help desperate people heal and rebuild their lives based on a living faith in Christ and a strong work ethic. The reality of the Covid-19 pandemic is that the need for this provision is increasing and there is a desperate need for additional accommodation. This grant will help renovate a property to provide housing for a further 26 recovering men.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Cinnamon Network

www.cinnamonnetwork.co.uk

Cinnamon Network exists to help churches to transform their communities by starting social action projects.  The Covid-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting BAME (black and minority ethnic) communities across the UK. This grant will help enable the deployment of staff, as well as purchase equipment and resources to deliver weekly webinars, which will equip

over 100 Christian Churches, charities and ministries to adapt, deliver and sustain measurable projects to support those in their communities affected by Covid-19. This grant will also help mobilise 500+ frontline volunteers across the UK to serve in church-led Covid-19 response projects, through adapting an existing volunteer training programme into an online tool.

GRANT AWARDED: £44,300 - MATCHED FUNDING

Intentional Health

www.intentionalhealth.uk

Intentional Health inspires health & wellbeing by equipping local church volunteers to run programmes that help people live healthier, happier and more hope filled lives. This grant will enable the launch of an online Course Module and distribution of 5 video sermon outlines, which aims to equip and inspire people to stay well as we emerge from Covid-19 lockdown. The course will address health from a uniquely Christian perspective, incorporating body, mind and soul and will include scripture, prayer and a Gospel message.

GRANT AWARDED: £12,000

Transforming Lives for Good

www.tlg.org.uk

TLG’s mission is to bring hope and a future to struggling children and their families. There are more than 1.5 million children now eligible to receive free school meals and as many as 4.6 million children living in poverty. Each day, many children in the UK go without the food they need and we know that this number will have risen sharply through this crisis. This grant will help enable TLG to feed 5,000 struggling children and families through “Boxes of Hope”, provide in-depth therapeutic support to children impacted by the trauma of Covid-19 and equip 1,000 people from 200 churches to support children and families impacted by the trauma of Covid-19.

GRANT AWARDED: £150,000

Vineyard Compassion

www.vineyardcompassion.co.uk

Vineyard Compassion is a Christian charity based in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. The vision is to support people ‘from crisis to full potential’, by providing practical support for the poor and empowering them to tackle the underlying root causes of poverty. Vineyard Compassion has already responded to the Covid-19 crisis by proactively changing the nature of its foodbank emergency provision projects to a delivery service when lockdown fully commenced. This grant will enable Vineyard Compassion to continue to offer emergency support to local families in crisis, as well as enhance their work by scaling up the impact and bringing more hope and help to the needy.

GRANT AWARDED: £35,000

Welcome Churches

welcomechurches.org

Welcome Churches is a national charity empowering churches to welcome and reach out to refugees with the good news of Jesus. This grant will enable over 500 isolated refugees be supported through Churches running in local communities during Covid-19 lockdown. This grant will also provide Covid-19 related resources and free training sessions for anyone working with refugees in Churches.

GRANT AWARDED: £35,000

Hopeline  

Hopeline Website

Hopeline is a telephone helpline set up by the Church of England, designed to connect with and meet the needs of the elderly and isolated. This is a free phone line aimed at over 75's who do not have access to the internet for the duration of isolation due to Covid-19. The Archbishop of Canterbury provides a message comfort, hope and encouragement and a range of options; Hymns we love; Hymns on loop; Prayers for day and night; opportunity to leave contact details for local parish priest/church; Audio of Sunday services. This grant will support 1.3m

minutes of calls.

GRANT AWARDED: £17,000

YoYo

www.yoyotrust.org.uk

YoYo have a youth ministry in York and during an academic year they visit 90% of primary and secondary schools in York. During the pandemic YoYo recognised the great opportunity and need and therefore did not furlough staff, but are instead producing materials which they’re delivering online, and intend to continue to do so throughout the lockdown and summer. The resources will be available to schools (and the parents/children) and to Churches. This grant will enable YoYo to sustain the ministry during this time and open up opportunities for the gospel in ways they haven’t seen before.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Safe Families

safe-families.org

Safe Families are providing a holistic package of support to families impacted by the COVID crisis is costing Safe Families £1,940/family. This includes the recruitment, training safeguarding and support of the volunteers & the assessment, goal setting and case management of the families for the duration of support (6 – 12 months).  Suitably qualified, professional staff roles are essential in this work to ensure safeguarding of vulnerable children, adults and volunteers. This grant will additionally support 250 families.

GRANT AWARDED: £90,000

Restored

www.restoredrelationships.org

Restored is an international Christian alliance working to transform relationships and end violence against women. They are working to reach one of the most marginalised and vulnerable group of people during the COVID 19 crisis. This grant will pay for a dedicated Project Manager during this time.

GRANT AWARDED: £30,300

At a Loss

www.ataloss.org

At a loss provides sign-posting services for those who are bereaved. This grant will enable them to continue the delivery of their program for the next 6 months with a project manager, who will continue their mission to the bereaved, across the nation, at this time of crisis, through the local church.

GRANT AWARDED: £37,700

Christianity Explored

www.ceministries.org

Christianity Explored has responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic by providing online resource, support for leaders and looking at new opportunities for gospel proclamation. This grant will contribute towards supporting these works and the increased demand for online resource.

GRANT AWARDED: £60,000

Bristol Churches City Fund

www.churchescityfund.org

Bristol Churches City Fund is a collaborative effort among organisations in the city of Bristol to meet increasing food poverty and need during the COVID-19 crisis. This grant will allow them to continue to collectively provide key staples needed in their network of food banks across the city.

GRANT AWARDED: £60,000

Sports Chaplaincy

sportschaplaincy.org.uk

Sports Chaplaincy UK provides pastoral and spiritual care to professional and amateur sports people. This grant will go towards their adapted activities during the COVID 19 lockdown and beyond.

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000

Kick

sportschaplaincy.org.uk

Kick’s mission is to transform young people’s lives with God’s love through sport and support. This grant will be used for the provision of a coach and solution-focussed mentors during the lock-down period and 4 kick camps post lock-down.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Our God Given Mission

www.ourgodgivenmission.com

Our God Given Mission has been constituted as a charity and has been helping thousands across the world know and preach the Gospel. This grant will be used to support their work in sharing resources and supporting the work of those proclaiming the gospel during this time.

GRANT AWARDED: £22,500

St Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

stmaryscnorton.com

The team at St Mary’s have been responding proactively to provide spiritual and physical support to those in their community. This grant will help towards provision of food, mental health support and maintaining help with a CAP advisor.

GRANT AWARDED: £25,000

Evangelical Alliance

www.eauk.org

The Evangelical Alliance is made up of hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches and tens of thousands of individuals, joined together for the sake of the gospel. Representing their members since 1846, the Evangelical Alliance is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK. During COVID 19 they have created a hub of up-to-date resources (found here) to serve and resource the local church. This grant will contribute towards the resourcing of the local church and costs associated with the advocacy work of the EA.

GRANT AWARDED: £41,000

Faith in Kids

faithinkids.org

Faith in Kids seeks to present Christ in a fun, relevant and truthful way, providing resources to support churches and parents to raise children trusting Jesus. This grant will contribute to the 6 brand new initiatives launched by Faith in Kids during lockdown.

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000

Community Money Advice

www.communitymoneyadvice.com

Community Money Advice provides advisers to those in need of support and guidance with money, through the local church. The grant will enable Community Money Advice to get ready for the wave of new need coming as a result of the COVID 19 Crisis.

GRANT AWARDED: £11,000

Hope at Home

www.hopeathome.org.uk

Hope at Home is a Christian charity operating a hosting scheme for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK. This grant will enable them to train 12 new hosts, anticipating an increased need post-lockdown.

GRANT AWARDED: £10,554

Speak Life

speaklife.org.uk

Speak Life is an award-winning media ministry that conducts much of its outreach online. They provided online resources that many have turned to in this time of crisis. Their media output has increased fourfold, they employed a new media producer to increase capacity further and launched a new website to reach out in these uncertain times. This grant will contribute to enabling some of this work to continue.

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

Victoria Community Church, Blackpool

www.victoriacommunitychurch.org.uk/

During the COVID crisis Victoria Community Church has partnered with the Romanian Fellowship in Blackpool to provide practical help and gospel hope to the local Romanian community. This grant will help support the pastors leading this important work

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

New Wine

www.new-wine.org

New Wine will help equip the Church to preach the gospel confidently at this moment of great opportunity. We aim to encourage our church leaders and churches to seize and maximise the mission opportunities they will have once restrictions are eased. This grant will help to provide immediate pastoral contact and personal support to senior church leaders in our network.

GRANT AWARDED: £45,000

Matthew’s House, Swansea

matthewshouse.org.uk

Matthew’s House exists to provide a warm and welcoming building in the heart of Swansea, with the expressed intention of being accessible for the homeless and most vulnerable in Swansea. The aim is for it to have the feel of a home where hospitality is experienced by all who enter the doors, regardless of their background, beliefs or circumstances. This grant will enable services to continue through lockdown to post-winter 2020.

GRANT AWARDED: £71,900

Family Space, Cheltenham

www.familyspace.org.uk

The #feedcheltenham campaign aims to alleviate food poverty in Cheltenham. This grant will provide 1,200 emergency food packages over 3 months.

GRANT AWARDED: £30,000

Jesus House

www.jesushouse.org.uk

Jesus House already provides spiritual, practical and mental health help to those in its community. This grant will enable them to scale up their response to the affects of COVID-19 in London. This includes a concentration on professional counselling services looking at loss.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

FURTHER GRANT AWARDED: £50,000 (MATCHFUNDED)

Street Connect

www.streetconnect.co.uk

Supporting those recovering from addiction and associated issues. Street Connect is a charity, based in Glasgow, that is working with partnership churches to help men and women to recover from a range of complex needs including various addictions, loneliness, isolation, mental health, offending and to support them towards a brighter and more fulfilling future. The grant will help to expand their work through six churches, over 30 volunteers reaching over 100 of the most marginalised in society plus a vehicle to provide the means of transporting the team to multiple locations.

GRANT AWARDED: £100,000

Langham Arts Trust

www.allsoulsmusic.org

Langham Arts Trust is a charity that exists to support the work of All Souls Music ministry. All Souls Music have continued to offer support and ministry in response to the Covid-19 pandemic through the power of music, including the Festival of Hope virtual Prom Praise. The grant has enabled them to present the gospel through creative, artistic platforms and to equip and help local church through shared worship resources.       

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Riding Lights Theatre

www.ridinglights.org

Riding Lights Theatre Company have been seeking the most productive way to respond to the Covid-19 crisis and they have been proactive through supporting events such as Spring Harvest. Riding Lights primarily work in prisons and schools and the grant will enable them to create and film a series of productions that will be used to bring hope within these environments as they emerge from the impact of the pandemic.

GRANT AWARDED: £25,000

Scripture Union

www.scriptureunion.org.uk

Scripture Union are a renowned Christian charity that exists to help children and young people explore the difference Jesus can make to the challenges and adventures of life. Throughout lockdown, they have been supporting churches and local mission groups through the provision of resources. The grant will enable them to transfer these materials online and make them available for free.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

UCCF

www.uccf.org.uk

UCCF is a gospel focussed ministry which has been supporting students in universities and colleges across the UK to reach their friends with the good news of Jesus since 1928. The grant will enable UCCF to present their largest ever National FORUM conference online to equip 1000 Christian Union leaders for the new academic year and to produce materials online to help them support 20,000 freshers and the wider student body through the most challenging of academic years

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Fusion

www.fusionmovement.org

Fusion has existed since 1999 to catalyse, facilitate and grow a student movement by working in partnership with local churches and other organisations. The grant will facilitate the training of 1500 leaders to run and multiply online small groups to reach out to students. It will also help support 2000 A Level students to start university with a missional mind-set in the face of the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. Fusion will also be resourcing 1800 UK churches to support isolated students as they emerge from lockdown.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Big Church Day Out

www.bigchurchdayout.com

Big Church Day Out has become the UK's largest annual Christian festival and evangelistic event and was set to gather over 30,000 in May 2020. Covid-19 has caused the event to be cancelled and the grant enabled BCDO to present a weekend programme online.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000 - MATCH FUNDED

Junction 42

www.junction42.org

J42 is a Christian charity with a mission statement to see the lives of offenders and their communities transformed by the power of the gospel. The grant helped J42 to pivot all of their efforts to 1:1, socially distanced, in-cell, online, or at-home provisions. This has included the  opportunity to spread the hope of the gospel in every prison in England, Wales, Scotland and Guernsey through the provision and distribution of 24,000 in-cell faith packs.

GRANT AWARDED: £34,328

20 Schemes

www.20schemes.com

20 Schemes is a ministry of Niddrie Community church seeking to plant gospel centred churches in the poorest housing schemes in Scotland. The grant has enabled them to extend their work in response to the crisis through providing children and family support through emergency daily cooked food bags delivered to the most vulnerable and sick; children’s work on-line through Facebook and Zoom as well as weekly postcard contact and online Evangelistic bible study for new believers or seekers followed up by one to one bible study with individuals. 

GRANT AWARDED: £48,000

Bible Reading Fellowship

www.brf.org.uk

The Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF) is a Christian charity that helps enable people of all ages to grow in faith and understanding of the Bible. The grant has been awarded to help BRF operate the Messy Church at Home initiative through providing resources and materials for local church to support families during lockdown and throughout the period as they emerge from lockdown.

GRANT AWARDED: £25,000

CPAS (Church Pastoral Aid Society)

www.cpas.org.uk

CPAS exists to enable churches to help every person hear and discover the good news of Jesus. The grant has enabled CPAS to provide discipleship, encouragement and support for 4,000 children and young people, their families and other sponsors; create a new, virtual programme to reach out to 4,000 children and teenagers including those suffering from the daily challenges of multiple forms of deprivation and to train 3,000 volunteers nationally to deliver this new virtual programme.

GRANT AWARDED: £50,000

Hope Together

www.hopetogether.org.uk

Hope Together is a charity that acts as a catalyst for local church mission in villages, towns and citites.The grant will help support the design, print and publication of 50,000 'Hope for Uncertain Times' booklets as well as a an interactive digital presentation of the book on the website.

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

Collective Church NI and Origin Community Farm Project

www.originspace.org

The Origin Community Farm project enables enable the mobilisation of the local church community, alongside many in their neighbourhoods, to spread the news of the gospel through tangible, grounded and life-changing ways. The grant is helping Origin to provide emergency relief from hunger for vulnerable adults or those in need in their communities across the north coast of Northern Ireland, as well as refugee and asylum seeker families who have nowhere to turn for food and support

GRANT AWARDED: £33,000

Association of Evangelists

www.aofe.org.uk

The Association of Evangelists is a charity that exists to proclaim the gospel in a biblical and relevant way. The grant will enable AofE to help their 368 partnership churches reach out to their communities through the publication of a customised high quality magazine that will act as a bridge to the church and a welcome to Alpha and other church activities such as CAP.

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000 MATCH FUNDED

Bridgebuilders

www.bbministries.org.uk

Bridge Builders provides a programme of training events for people in Christian leadership roles. The grant has enabled them to adapt to provide their resources online and utilise online conferencing to deliver training. Their course material is highly relevant to the crisis including support in dealing with anxiety, conflict and bringing reconciliation. With the increased pressure on church leaders as they seek to support those impacted by the crisis, whilst also facing the impact for themselves and their families, Bridge Builders are providing care for the carers and equipping church leaders and charities as they seek to serve others.

GRANT AWARDED: £35,000

Christian Medical Fellowship

www.cmf.org.uk

CMF’s mission is to unite and equip Christian doctors and nurses to live and speak for Jesus Christ. They are on the frontline of the response to COVID-19, daily striving to bring hope and healing to patients, and sharing the Gospel and their lives with both colleagues and patients, in appropriate and contextualised ways. In the Covid-19 pandemic they have faced unprecedented challenges but also a new level of opportunity. The grant has helped CMF to reshape and refocus their ministry in response to the urgent and changing needs of their members and other Christian healthcare workers through establishing their new Pastoral Care and Wellbeing service and embedding it into their growing local networks; produce a dedicated new online prayer resource that will unite and encourage Christians in healthcare and adapted their existing conference provision for the new post-Covid-19 world.

GRANT AWARDED: £25,000

Fegans

www.fegans.org.uk

Fegans are an authentically and overtly Christian charity working alongside statutory services as a high-end intervention partner working with vulnerable children and families. They have strong partnerships and working relationships with schools, early Help, GPS and CAMHS who refer children and families to them. 150 years after James Fegan was motivated by his faith to look after vulnerable children, Fegans continues to carry on that legacy. The grant will help Fegans to generate an online training platform for Church Leaders to provide free access to children’s mental health and parenting training.

GRANT AWARDED: £16,000

London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC)

www.licc.org.uk

The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity seeks to empower Christians to make a difference for Christ in their working lives; help church leaders equip their church communities to do this and fuel a movement to reach and renew this nation. The grant has helped  LICC to adapt their ministry to provide online training, equipping and support across broad spectrum relating to a Covid-19 response to life, church and work. This has included creating the Covid-19 prayer journey online whereby they received over 600 responses to a request to understand the needs and processed these into an online prayer journey for a range of categories. They have created online resources entitled staying fruitful in lockdown and a series of bible studies in response to the pandemic

GRANT AWARDED: £15,000

Harper Church Glasgow

www.harperchurch.org.uk

Harper Church has 10% of the UK’s annual asylum seeking population initially located within 1 mile of the Harper Church building. The grant is helping them to build relationships with 200 asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable people through the provision of food and clothing and helping them stay connected trough the provision of mobile data packs and the loan/gift of mobile tablets.

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000

Message Trust

www.message.org.uk

The Message Trust is a worldwide movement passionate about sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the hardest to reach young people though word and deed. Their work includes serving in prisons, schools and the wider community. The grant will help them launch their four bands back into the most needy communities and produce daily content to reach young people across multi-media platforms; develop their proximity network and promote and utilise their 4 points evangelistic material for use by youth workers, prison outreach workers, evangelists and churches.

GRANT AWARDED: £105,700 MATCH FUNDED

Caring for Life

www.caringforlife.co.uk

Caring for Life is a gospel-focussed ministry whose aim is to share the love of Jesus by serving some of the most vulnerable people in society through a frontline home support project, supported residential homes and therapeutic and life-skills ministry at Crag House Farm. During the crisis Caring for Life have been helping people with food parcels, housing benefits and mental health etc and continue to see people come to Christ. The grant will help towards their essential costs for two months.

GRANT AWARDED: £56,000

East Belfast Mission

www.ebm.org.uk

East Belfast Mission are based in the heart of East Belfast on the Newtownards Road. The four surrounding electoral wards, where their work primarily takes place, are all in the top 30 most deprived wards in Northern Ireland.  In the area in which they’re based, up to 46% of working age people are economically inactive and two thirds live in rented accommodation, qualifications are low and unemployment and lack of self-belief are rife.  East Belfast Mission aim to relieve these difficulties and transform and renew their community by sharing the gospel and offering a range of practical services to support those in the community who need their help. The grant will help provide a Care Christian Counselling Service, as well as assist fragile adults trying to cope with the new normality’s of life through community groups.

GRANT AWARDED: £37,624

Emmanuel Church, Northern Ireland

www.emmanuel-church.co.uk

Emanuel Church are based in Craigavon, NI, which has 10 of the 120 most deprived areas in the country. Their vision is to help rewrite the story of Craigavon, Ireland and the nations with the good news of the Kingdom of God.  The grant will enable them to respond to the needs of the area by providing emergency and short-term response to Covid-19, targeting physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing as well as counselling, support for vulnerable children in schools and care pathways working with the NHS.

GRANT AWARDED: £59,600

Hackney Church

www.hackney.church

Hackney Church has a vision to bring hope to the people of East London in Jesus’ name. The Lighthouse Project works with vulnerable people, alleviating need through a drop-in lunch and foodbank, building lasting relationships and pointing individuals towards relevant services so that they can build a future filled with hope. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, they’ve shifted all services to a take-away model and launched a second location in Leyton, in order to support more people during this food crisis. The grant will enable them to expand their provision of meals to five church locations across East London distributing 7,000 meals per week.

GRANT AWARDED: £31,600 MATCH FUNDED

Redeemed Evangelism and Mission Agency (REMA)

 

REMA train young people for evangelism in their own communities and use the training mission field of Dagenham, Essex. Their work ordinarily is to evangelise on a Friday/Saturday and provide a meal on Sundays followed by discipleship. REMA serve people who are below the poverty line and often have other underlying issues. Their work has stopped with the onset of Covid-19 and they have adapted by providing meals and also phone recharging cards to enable them to keep in touch with each person. The cost to the mission has increased significantly and therefore the grant will enable them to continue to provide support to their communities.

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000

Roots Assemblies

www.rootsontheweb.com

ROOTS is a partnership of denominations and other Christian organisations and has been publishing lectionary-based worship resources online and in print since 2002. ROOTS resources help people to plan inspiring worship, encourage discipleship throughout the week and nurture children and young people in their faith. ROOTS create a set of high quality Christian video materials for use as Assemblies within primary schools, together with supporting materials for follow on discussions within the classroom. The grant will enable ROOTS to build a library of content over the summer months, ready for delivery in schools and churches from September onwards.

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

Westminster Theological Centre (WTC)

wtctheology.org.uk

Westminster Theological Centre courses integrate rigorous theology with the life of the Spirit. Students attest to the transformative results studying with WTC on all areas of their life, work and mission. As a result of the pandemic, significantly more church leaders and members are seeking to deepen their theological understanding to inform their personal and vocational response to the crisis and to reimagine church in whatever becomes the new normal. WTC is adapting both material and delivery models to ensure their students continue to receive cutting edge, easily accessible courses which are relevant for the situations they face. The grant will help to fund more means tested bursaries to students whose income has suffered from Covid-19 as well as assist with costs involved in moving courses online.

GRANT AWARDED: £15,000

Number 72

Westminster Theological Centre courses integrate rigorous theology with the life of the Spirit. Students attest to the transformative results studying with WTC on all areas of their life, work and mission. As a result of the pandemic, significantly more church leaders and members were seeking to deepen their theological understanding to inform their personal and vocational response to the crisis and to reimagine church in whatever became the new normal. WTC adapted both material and delivery models to ensure their students continued to receive cutting edge, easily accessible courses which are relevant for the situations they face. The grant helped to fund more means tested bursaries to students whose income had suffered from Covid-19 as well as assist with costs involved in moving courses online.

GRANT AWARDED: £15,000

Alive Church

alivechurch.org.uk

Alive Church is a multisite church with 7 locations across the midlands with its most established base in Lincoln. In September 2019 a new congregation was planted from Lincoln to Gainsborough, a neighbouring town with significant deprivation and need (ranked 24th in deprived areas out of 32,844 neighbourhoods in England.) There is an existing volunteer base in Alive Gainsborough delivering a skeleton service of food parcels to known families from the local community as well as medicine runs and doorstep support. The grant will enable Alive Church to mobilise a team of volunteers to deliver tangible aid and other support to the community over the next year.

GRANT AWARDED: £31,140

KidzKlub, Leeds

www.kidzklubleeds.org.uk

KidzKlub Leeds focus on reaching unchurched children and their families with God’s love in word and deed. Over 20 years they have reached 26,000 children in partnership with churches. During the crisis they have continued to support 1,000 children growing up in poverty. The grant will help to upscale the team of community workers to help meet the demand in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

GRANT AWARDED: £23,116

Cheeky Pandas

cheekypandas.com

Cheeky Pandas provide free online resources to help children, youth and parents grow their faith. The songs, music videos and devotionals are fun, bright, professionally written and produced. Churches and ministries around the world are using the videos in their online services while parents can directly download resources for their children at home. At this time of crisis and uncertainty, there is a great opportunity to reach people with the gospel. The grant will help Cheeky Pandas to create further resources.

GRANT AWARDED: £22,800

Kingsgate

kingsgate.church

KingsGate Community Church began in 1988 and since then the church has grown from strength to strength into the multi-cultural, inter-generational family that we are today. A hallmark of KingsGate is the incredible commitment of hundreds of people to seeing other people’s lives transformed by the power of God’s love. The impact of lockdown as well as the long-term socioeconomic impact of Covid-19, has and will have, a huge effect on our physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, vocational and financial wellbeing. Wellbeing was a key issue prior to Covid-19, and will continue to be a key issue as we move forward. The grant will go toward the development of a wellbeing series, including a 50-day biblical and practical book, small group resources, sermon series, podcasts and reading plans.

GRANT AWARDED: £15,000

Show Jesus

www.showjesus.org.uk

Show Jesus has been supporting The Church for more than a decade. Its mission is to equip Christians and Churches by providing resources to support evangelistic outreach at shows, events and community programmes across the country. The grant will help with the development of a set of packages that can be offered to churches, community groups and individuals to enable them to use the existing Show Jesus equipment and expertise in creating evangelism opportunities, as well as open a new channel to build on the amazing open door that God has given Show Jesus with the trader community and the show staff.

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

Kerith Church

kerith.church

Kerith Church’s mission is “Helping people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people". Kerith Church were already providing 150-200 meals per week prior to the crisis and this has increased to 400 per week. The grant will go towards helping to ensure their work continues through the crisis and beyond

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000

St Peter’s Brockley

www.stpetersbrockley.org.uk

In response to the Covid-19, St Peter's Brockley opened up a food bank, the need of which became very apparent when two local food banks shut down. They offer prayers to everyone receiving food and an invitation to their Lasting Happiness course, which is being offered online as a bridge to the church. The grant will help enable St Peter's Brockley to continue to provide meals, as well as provide support, training and intervention for children, young people, parents, siblings and professionals through a partnership with Growing Hope Brockley

GRANT AWARDED: £20,000

Third Space Ministries

thirdspaceministries.co.uk

Third Space Ministries believes that the most powerful truth is for people to discover and encounter the love of God, through Jesus. Many people have had God misrepresented to them, and Third Space Ministries aims to simply draw alongside people, to love them, to listen to them, to value them, to help them move a step closer to understanding a God who loves them. Third Space Ministries tends to fall within the entertainment and leisure industries. These industries have been hardest hit by lockdown and the long term event cancellations resulting from Covid-19. Many of the people Third Space Ministries work with, and provide chaplaincy for, are facing months and potentially years of reduced income or unemployment and the impact on their mental health and wellness is significant. The grant will help enable Third Space Ministries to extend their chaplaincy hours, and to provide equipment that will enable them to deliver more of their material online.

GRANT AWARDED: £15,000

International Network of Prophetic Centres

www.propheticscots.com

In an urgent response to the growing spiritual, emotional and mental health crisis across the UK that has come since the fear of Covid-19, Glasgow Prophetic Centre has rapidly replaced all its existing face-to-face ministries with two innovative online solutions that are helping to anchor tens of thousands of people across the nation in hope and truth. The grant will help towards sustaining the online projects for the next 6 months.   

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

The Ramp Church UK

ramp.church

Ramp Church is the local and regional expression of the Ramp, which is a global ministry with a passion and mission to awaken a generation, equip them for their purpose, and send them out to change their world. The mission of Ramp Church is community transformation through the presence, power and message of Jesus. Before lockdown, Ramp Church averaged 215 people in weekend attendance, 40-50% of whom were 18-34 years of age. Since lockdown, Ramp Church are now engaging with an average of 1,700 people every week, of which, 60- 70% are 18-34-year olds. These 1,700 people are watching an average of 30 hours of Ramp Church video content every day and that number is still increasing. The grant will help Ramp Church to purchase needed equipment, partner with the right consultants, and empower discipleship through service.   

GRANT AWARDED: £75,000

Make Jesus Known

makejesusknown.co.uk

Make Jesus Known’s vision is to reach out to everyone with the great news of Jesus and the amazing life-change found in Him. Make Jesus Known give people the choice to join His movement and let Him use them to transform the world, they work in partnership with churches and Christian organisations across the world in order to make this a reality. The grant will help enable Make Jesus Known to upscale their videos, manage the growing numbers of responses and link better to churches.   

GRANT AWARDED: £45,000

Prayerstorm

prayerstorm.org

Prayer Storm is a movement of worship, prayer and fasting which exists to provoke a spiritual awakening by raising an army of praying warriors. Prayer Storm have a vision for the mass mobilisation of a prayer army who are consecrated to a lifestyle of prayer because they are so gripped with the conviction that only a revival of prayer in the church can revive the heart of a nation. As a result, many come to Prayer Storm with distractions and addictions and leave re-fired with a new focus to take awakening prayer back to their churches. Since the onset of Covid-19 Prayer Storm have been providing an hour long worship and prayer meeting online each night, which has reached over 140,000 people through online channels. The grant will help to continue support these online worship and prayer meetings during the crisis.  

GRANT AWARDED: £10,000

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Written by

Hannah Gibney

Hannah joined the Philanthropy Services Team in 2019 to help reach out to new and emerging philanthropists. Her previous roles have been in the Christian and secular spheres and she is passionate about seeing people released into the fullness that God has for them.

She loves working in a team where its primary aim is to help people experience freedom through generosity.

She lives and worships in Bristol at Christ Church Clifton and is concerned about Justice and Children and Youth.