The money will be used for the benefit of the most vulnerable in the community in an area that has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

River Clyde Homes teamed up with the Inverclyde Community Action Response Group (ICARG) to make the bid to support the very real needs of Inverclyde. RCH will be working with Creative Inverclyde, Belville Community Garden, Mind Mosaic and YourVoice to deliver the range of projects. This follows what has been an amazing coming together of this already close-knit community in response to the impact of the crisis.

Stephen Henry of ICARG said: “The Inverclyde Community Action Response Group (ICARG), which comprises 10 third sector organisations and over 350 on the ground volunteers, was created to support the needs of the Inverclyde community as a direct result of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, to date, there are 11 services running, covering areas such as, meal prep and delivery, through to free telephone access to mental health support.

“ICARG is delighted to be partnering with River Clyde Homes and looks forward with excitement, through this partnership, to creating innovative services, for the benefit of Inverclyde residents.”

The money will be used across the community to help cover five broad themes: personal finance, food provision, connectivity, wellbeing, isolation, and mental health. A programme will be rolled out across the partners over the coming months to deliver things such as fuel cards, food vouchers and recipe cards, digital equipment and training for older residents, isolation and activity kits and mental health training for River Clyde Homes’ frontline staff.

Each partner will play a key role in the delivery of much-needed services.

Heather Mitchell of River Clyde Homes added: “This much welcome funding will go some way to tackling just some of the issues that have come to the fore during the current crisis. It has come to the attention of the partnership just how deep the impact of Covid-19 has been and we are determined to alleviate them in any way we can. Working with the ICARG partners has allowed us to introduce a wide range of projects that will benefit the residents of Inverclyde”.

• Read all of our articles relating to COVID-19 here.