WCVA emergency funding secured to support vital services

Due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, with our charity shops closed, events cancelled, offices and schools closed and community groups unable to meet, as a charity we lost 70% of the income we had budgeted for April 2020. Our Senior Management Team and Trustees currently predict that by the end of the financial year (by 31st March 2021) the crisis will have cost us approximately 44% of the income we originally predicted.   

Quite simply, the pandemic has had a shattering effect on our finances.  

But whilst the future remains uncertain and there will no doubt be further challenges ahead as the world continues to live with Coronavirus, our team are very proud, and grateful, that the charity has managed to survive, and continued to deliver life-changing services to children and families throughout lockdown.  

Cerebral Palsy Cymru (formerly Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre Wales) is hugely grateful to a number of funders who have generously supported its work over the past few months including Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) who awarded us two grants in May – one from the Voluntary Services Emergency Fund and other from the Third Sector Resilience Fund. Both schemes were funded by the Welsh Government. Totalling £156,187 in cash grants and with an additional £18,750 as an interest-free loan, this income has enabled us to keep the Centre going and provide vital cash flow support. 

Matthew Brown, Director of Operations at WCVA said: “At the outset of the crisis it became clear that the voluntary sector in Wales was going to be hit financially by the crisis, while at the same time experiencing a rise in demand for the support and services that it provides. The emergency funds put in place with support from Welsh Government were designed to make sure that organisations like Cerebral Palsy Cymru could continue to deliver their vital services and weather the economic storm.”

Jenny Carroll, Centre Director and Consultant Physiotherapist, said “On behalf of everyone at Cerebral Palsy Cymru, we want to say a sincere thank you to WCVA and the Welsh Government for this crisis funding. In April our finances were looking very bleak, with so much of our usual income wiped out overnight, but thanks to sources of emergency funding like this we have been able to stabilise, to continue to support children and families at a time when many need us now more than ever. Whilst the challenges still remain unprecedented, we are grateful that we are still able to offer our specialist, unique services to children and families living with cerebral palsy across Wales.”