1995-2020

 

Hope for Our Community Appeal

 

You will be aware of BRIDGES, our Community Café on the High Street. In addition to being a familiar and accessible meeting place for everyone to share a coffee or to enjoy a wholesome meal, the Centre also plays a pivotal role in hosting a range of community support activities and partnerships. 

 

Inevitably, the past 7 months have been an incredible challenge, with closure in March preventing our visitors from using the Community Café and suspension of all community support activities. The Trustees decided to not furlough the two staff members, in order to keep BRIDGES active online and to be able to prepare for reopening in late July. The cost of running BRIDGES through lockdown was over £500 per week. We were able to partly offset this with government resilience grants, but now, with a much reduced Café capacity and no scope to run our usual fundraising events, we are seeing an increasing strain on our reserves, which have fallen by 25%.

 

We see the role that BRIDGES can play in the community as even more vital in the post-COVID era, supporting people who experience a disproportionate challenge because of physical or mental health disabilities, financial pressures and other issues. However, to meet our existing programme as well as delivering new projects and working with new partners, we need our supporters more than ever. Our target is £10,000, to enable us to meet Edenbridge’s post-COVID needs. 

 

We have just joined Localgiving, a fundraising platform that works with local charities and community groups to maximise financial support. Importantly, they are about to launch a £1m Coronavirus Fund which will match 100% of online donations. The programme is in 2 parts: Initially running for 2 weeks, it opens at 10am on Tuesday 27th October and donations made, up to £75 each week per person, will be matched. The second part runs from 10am on Tuesday 4th November, to 12 noon on 9th November, when any single donation of up to £5,000 will also be matched, subject to funds still being available. 

 

Any and all support is welcome, but particularly in the window from 27th October, where any online donation that you make will be doubled by Localgiving. If you are able to make a donation, please follow this link https://localgiving.org/appeal/BRIDGEShopeforourcommunity/

 

If you wish to make a donation but would prefer to make a cash or cheque donation, please contact Mary Perrett or Liz Martin Lawrence at BRIDGES and they will be able to help. They will also be able to talk to you about becoming a volunteer, if you are able to offer non-financial help.

 

Thank you again for your support.

 

 

Richard Dyson

BRIDGES Chair