UNITED KINGDOM (November 17, 2020) — The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has recently received a grant of £100K from Barclays PLC, for The Umbrella Project, an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
The Umbrella Project aims to provide a multi-agency approach to food poverty, physical and mental wellbeing, and sustainable livelihoods for some of the UK’s neediest and vulnerable people. These include the elderly, families with no recourse to public funds, and children who entitled to free school meals.
Photo credit: ADRA in the United Kingdom.
The grant was made possible through the Barclays £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package. The funding will be used to benefit 80,000 people through 73 urban grassroots community hubs in Scotland, Ireland and Wales as well as in the north and south of England, with the support of over 700 volunteers.
This funding is specifically to be used to address food poverty and will address the growing needs for adequate and nutritious food to prevent malnutrition, to improve dignity and to support long-term wellbeing.
‘The Umbrella Project is part of the I AM Urban initiative, the UK domestic programme set up in 2018 to complement our overseas humanitarian portfolio,’ said Bert Smit, ADRA-UK, CEO. ‘Through this initiative, we seek to empower community hubs to competently deliver solution-focused sustainable localised outreach projects, motivate them to embed social justice in their project delivery and support urban communities to positively impact society through active engagements’.
Nigel Higgins, Barclays Chairman, said: “COVID-19 has created an unprecedented social and economic impact in the UK, with many experiencing greater hardship due to the crisis. Incredible charities, such as ADRA-UK have been playing a vital role in the UK’s response to the pandemic, ensuring urgent help reaches those most in need of support. As a bank we have been doing all we can for our customers, clients and colleagues, and we hope that by partnering with ADRA-UK and many other charities across the UK, collectively we can ensure that as many people as possible in the communities in which we live and work are supported through this crisis.”
Notes to Editors:
About ADRA-UK
ADRA-UK is part of the global ADRA network that delivers relief and development assistance to individuals in 118 countries regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, gender or religious association. By partnering with local communities, organisations and governments, we are able to deliver culturally relevant programmes and build local capability for sustainable change.
For media enquiries please contact Cathy Boldeau, I AM Urban Project Manager, cboldeau@adra.org.uk
About Barclays’ UK Charity Partners
Barclays £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package is supporting charities that are helping vulnerable people impacted by COVID-19, and the associated social and economic hardship caused by the crisis. Alongside matching colleague donations and fundraising efforts, Barclays is partnering with a number of charities in the UK, Americas, Asia and Europe, delivering help where it is needed most. You can find the latest list of charity partners here.
For media queries, please contact: Lisa Webb, Head of Regional Corporate Relations – 07775 548426 or lisa.webb@barclays.com.
