Hello everyone 

As Administrators of the Llanidloes Mutual Aid Fund, we thought it was about time we contacted you all again to tell you what has been happening. Covid is still with us and new issues are arising, primarily the cost of living, that are affecting us all. We also have an important message and request for you (see below) about changing the Fund’s objectives. 

The Fund was set up in April 2020, to support the Llanidloes community through the covid crisis.  Most of the wonderful volunteers who helped covid sufferers, their families and carers with shopping and other supplies did not ask for their expenses to be reimbursed, so initially most of our funds went to the Llani Pantri to set up the food bank. The Pantri is now well established and has its own bank account, so donations can now be made directly to them. 

As we still had significant funds available, we looked for other local needs arising from, or exacerbated by, the impact of covid, where we could offer financial support.  To help us identify such needs we sent you all a questionnaire in December 2020, asking what you thought the most significant local needs were. The number of responses to the questionnaire was rather poor, but mental health issues were those most frequently referred to. We have since been able to fund the following three local projects. 

School Wellbeing Packs - £900 granted to create an activity and reading pack (including an activity book, coloured crayons and a reading book suitable for the child) to post to Llanidloes Primary School pupils to give them and their parents a little morale boost during the school closure period arising from the covid pandemic. 

School Pupils Mental Health - £1,604 granted to Mid & North Powys Mind for a six-month pilot project to support Llanidloes High School pupils experiencing mental health issues arising from the covid pandemic and other causes. 

Mums Matter - £1,500 granted to Mid & North Powys Mind to provide eight weekly ‘Mums Matter’ sessions for new mothers, focussing on their needs and providing strategies to help address their mental health needs arising from the covid pandemic and other causes. 

We are also currently working with Age Concern Cymru Powys to identify ways to support local older people affected directly or indirectly by the impact of the covid pandemic. 

Looking to the future, the Administrators feel we should widen the remit of the Fund, so that we can address other emerging social needs, such as the cost-of-living crisis and the impact of climate change. Another local group has plans to set up a scheme to help people affected by the rising cost of living. They have asked if we can help fund their work, but we will not be able to unless we change our objectives. Currently, the Fund’s objectives are as follows: 

“This Mutual Aid Fund has been set up to support the work of the Llanidloes and District Covid 19 group in the present crisis. It will be used to help cover the expenses of volunteers, where required, as well as to pre-pay for goods required by the people we are supporting, and to assist those in our community suffering hardship due to sickness, furlough or inability to work during the current lock down. A proportion of the fund will also be committed to ensuring that the Llani Pantri (foodbank) is stocked with essential items over and above the many in kind donations it receives.” 

 As these are the objectives you donated money for, we cannot change them without your agreement. We would like to change the wording of our objectives to the following: 

“The Llanidloes Mutual Aid fund aims to raise money for local good causes that provide activities in support of the health and social wellbeing of persons in need within Llanidloes and the surrounding area.” 

Having broad based and not overly prescriptive objectives, such as these, will allow us to address any form of social disadvantage that may arise in our community. We will, of course, continue to support activities that address the social impact of covid. Please reply to give us any comments you may have on this change to our objectives. If we do not receive any replies from donors objecting to this repurposing of the Fund to a more general role of supporting people in need, this change will take effect from Friday 9 September 2022. 
 

Please send us your comments by clicking on the ‘Post Reply’ tab at the bottom of this screen. Thank you. 

The Fund’s income and expenditure accounts from April 2020 to June 2022 will be sent to you as a separate update. At the end of June we were holding £9,947, so we still have significant funds available. With this much in reserve and few requests for funding coming through, we are not actively seeking new donations at present. Thank you all for your generosity, but donors need to be aware that we now have to pay a 5% charge on all donations made through the Open Collective platform. The organisation that manages this for us (Social Change Nest) originally had grant funding to cover these costs, but this has now expired. If further fund-raising becomes necessary, we will have to consider if opening our own bank account would be a more cost-effective way to receive and manage donations, but to do this we would need a formal constitution and people willing to become trustees. 

Best wishes to you all, we look forward to hearing from you 

Nick Venti, Alison Bryan, Clare Bound, Graham Brand 

Administrators, Llanidloes Mutual Aid Fund