Inverclyde Community Action Response Group (ICARG) are asking local businesses to help bridge the funding gap for the services being offered by the group which are making a huge difference to Inverclyde residents during this difficult time.

The group which was set up by local campaigners Stephen Henry and Louise Hunter, includes Belville Community Garden, Branchton Community Centre, CVS, YourVoice, the Trust, Inverkip Hub, Compassionate Inverclyde, Mind Mosaic Counselling and Therapy and other local volunteers.

The taskforce is helping to co-ordinate a massive operation to assist elderly and vulnerable people who can’t get out during the coronavirus crisis and also provide support for frontline health workers and key workers through a dedicated helpline run by counselling experts Mind Mosaic.

Over the last month the group have launched four services for the local community and a fifth is about to be piloted with a six and seventh service currently work in progress, these are:

• Self isolation food boxes, with almost 800 boxes been delivered to date

• Prescription pickup and delivery with over 200 pickups and deliveries made to date

• Daily keep in contact telephone calls

• Access to Mental health service and support for Frontline workers

• A pilot ‘lifeline grocery delivery’ service for those who are self isolating and cannot readily access funds

• The  two additional services which are still work in progress and require further funding are:

  • Tech 4 kids – a loan service of laptops with 4G access to enable disadvantaged children to have ready access to online education and development resources

  • Meal preparation and delivery (£2k of required £10k funding secured) – potential social enterprise, looking at making and delivering several hundred meals per day and deliver these across the Inverclyde Community.

Founder Stephen Henry said:

“The meal prep and delivery service currently has about £2k allocated in support, however we need circa £10k to kick start this project so we are actively seeking circa £8k to close this gap.”

Local Businesses who are able to fully or part fund the project are asked to get in touch. For any businesses interested in donating to the group please contact either Stephen Henry at stephen@henryenterprises.co.uk or Louise Hunter at louisehunter@summerhousemedia.com.