A powerful boost for community groups

Dunmurry Presbyterian Church, Finaghy Primary School and Annahilt and Magheraconluce Community Association were three of 43 community, sporting and charity groups throughout Northern Ireland to benefit from Power NI’s Community Response Fund set up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dunmurry Presbyterian Church utilised their funding to produce food parcels, Finaghy PS received three Galaxy tablets, whilst for Annahilt and Magheraconluce Community Association the funding secured 125 hi-vis vests for local people to use when walking on rural roads in the evenings.

Of the 43 community groups helped by Power NI twenty-nine were proposed by company staff located at sites in Omagh, Belfast and Antrim.

Power NI’s Gemma-Louise Bond explained: “Staff have always been an integral part of our community support programmes and through our employee initiative, Helping Hands, team members have nominated many different groups for Power NI grants. With the impact of Covid-19 we invited staff to suggest projects in their local areas that they either volunteered with or knew about and felt deserved additional support in these current unusual and challenging times.”

Power NI also targeted 14 charities and organisations that they had already partnered with, seeking to provide on the ground support where it was most needed. Support ranged from helping groups manufacture scrubs bags and PPE visors for frontline workers to meals and food parcels as well as activity packs for those living with dementia and essential living packs for families. The community scheme also funded volunteer laptops, counselling and chat services.

William Steele, Director of Customer Solutions Northern Ireland said: ‘We’re thrilled to provide a financial boost to such a wide range of initiatives across Northern Ireland specifically in respect of community responses to the coronavirus crisis. It’s wonderful to give both our partner groups and staff nominated projects a deserving helping hand.”

Partner groups helped by Power NI’s Community Response Fund include Age NI, NOW Group, Macmillan, Advice NI, USEL, foodbanks in Belfast, Antrim and Omagh, Action Mental Health and the Welcome Organisation. The fund has enabled all 43 groups to provide a total of 2250 PPE visors, masks and scrub bags, 50 litres of hand sanitiser and 2550 meals, food parcels and grocery vouchers.