I love snowdrops. For me they are always a sign of good to come... |
Arts Council England were the first to send a very lovely email letting us know they understood what was happening, knew we would be worried and wanted to offer us some reassurance. "All grant conditions are removed with immediate effect for the next 3 months". What did they want in return? Just that we looked after each other and looked after our communities. We can definitely do that. Thanks Arts Council England.
Some mini knitted pockets we offer people to keep small treasures and use to help them at tricky times. |
Next came a public announcement from a number of funders including Lankelly Chase, and then followed the very lovely email personalised with a lovely message from Joe. Look after yourselves he said, we are hear to support you so you can support your community. We will keep in touch so we can work things out together, and let us know if and where we can help. We will indeed. Thank you Lankelly Chase.
A rainbow in Barrow March 2019. |
Next came a number of messages and emails from the National Lottery Community Fund who are our major funder as we are a lucky recipient of one of the Women and Girls' Initiative Grants. They offered reassurance that they are ready to be flexible, and told us that there won't be any pressure in relation to targets and timescales. Clair let us know she would be around if we needed her or had any questions. Thanks Clair. Emails like this mean we can concentrate our efforts on doing what we are here to do and remove so much of our worry. Thank you to all at the National Lottery Community Fund. When this is over we are looking forward to catching up with you all.
Lastly, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner who were checking we were all staying safe, and Barrow Borough Council who are working hard to make sure services will still be in place when this is all over. Thank you.
Thank you to all these funders and to the others who are encouraging us to get on with things. Your support means such a great deal and here is a very big and heart felt thank you for all of here in Barrow.
Love, Rebecca and all at WCM xxx