We have thought and felt deeply about the disgrace that there is poverty in our wealthy country.
QUAKER FAITH & PRACTICE 29.13
OxFAP is a committee that administers grants on behalf of Oxford Quaker Meeting. It is one way in which Oxford Quakers respond to poverty in Oxford. OxFAP gives quarterly block grants to the following five voluntary sector organisations: Asylum Welcome, Homeless Oxfordshire, Citizens Advice, Elmore Community Services and Aspire. These organisations provide individual small grants to meet the urgent needs of their clients. The grants are reviewed quarterly by the OxFAP committee.
Many needs arise from gaps in the benefit and support systems. Some groups are particularly disadvantaged, such as people coming out of homelessness, families in poverty, vulnerable migrants with no recourse to public funds and ex-prisoners struggling to make a new life.
Examples of recent grants are:
- A cooker for a family who had been rehoused because of domestic abuse (Citizens Advice)
- Warm winter clothes for a recently discharged prisoner (Homeless Oxfordshire)
- 6 months’ gym membership for a lonely, isolated 18-year-old refugee from Afghanistan (Asylum Welcome)
- A laptop for a client who is doing online courses to enable them to get a job (Elmore Community Services)
- Carpeting for a formerly homeless man who’d been allocated a new flat (Aspire)
OxFAP’s work is done by volunteers and without overheads, so that every penny donated goes to help the people in need.
If you would like to support the work of OxFAP through a single or regular donation, please click this link: Donating to OxFAP.
Oxford Quakers 