6 October 2021

Northfield charity has community at its heart

Northfield Community Partnership was one of the charities supported by St. Modwen’s Covid-19 Recovery Fund which was set up to help charities continue to carry out their vital work throughout the pandemic. In a series of blogs, we spoke with each charity to discuss the work they do, its importance to the community and how you can support them going forward.

Established in 2007, Northfield Community Partnership gained charitable status in 2014 and has continued to provide a vital range of services supporting over 10,000 people per year. These services contribute to the overall wellbeing of the community including job support, volunteering opportunities, health and financial services. Support is far reaching including various areas of society with training & development, community connections for over 50’s, local events along with emergency food and fuel assistance.

The ‘Hub’ that is operated by the charity has become an integral part of Northfield, providing an accessible and prominent high street location for the provision of services that improve people’s life chances, whilst providing facilities and support to groups who deliver opportunities to the wider community.

When the Global Pandemic began to impact the region, the charity felt the effects. More demands from the community came in, less funding was available and social distancing implications meant that the direct contact that is so greatly valued by the community was incredibly challenging to deliver. As a result, the Northfield hub needed to close with no definitive schedule for reopening so alternative arrangements needed to be made swiftly.

The team pulled together through home working arrangements and with support from other local partners and volunteers were able to continue to deliver a range of valuable services. One pivotal moment was in October 2020 when the charity joined forces with Digbeth Dining Club, The Project, Northfield Baptist Church and others to ensure that children entitled to free school meals would continue to receive them throughout half term and the Christmas holiday. Northfield had over 6,300 students eligible for free school meals at the time so the logistics around the deliveries became a military operation.

Thanks to the influence of Marcus Rashford, circumstances like this were brought to the attention of the national media but had it not been for the swift intervention of charities like the Northfield Community Partnership then the potential implications for thousands of local children may have been severe.

Following the food distribution work, it became clear that the charity would need a larger facility to expand the support available. In November 2020 as a direct response to the Global Pandemic the team relocated their foodbank operations to larger premises in Kings Norton and continue to thrive and be more valued than ever.

Rebecca Debenham, CEO, said:

“The range of support available at The Northfield Community Partnership covers so many different areas that impact people’s lives so it’s essential that we make every single pound received work smartly to maximise the benefit for those in need.”

Community projects are also supported and recently the charity ran Northfield beach, Kings Norton beach, play opportunities and young people’s events. These activities contribute towards raising the profile of the positive work the charity does but also enhance community engagement following a prolonged period during which, many people may have experienced isolation and a lack of personal contact.

For more information about the charity, or to provide donations, go to:

Northfield Community Website

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