The scale of the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact is being felt across every corner of the Atlantic Fellows community. In recognition of the extended range of challenges and critical scenarios Fellows are facing in their work, the Atlantic Institute in early April launched a new responsive suite of grants, designed to provide targeted support and resources to scaffold and scale Fellows’ collective work to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on endangered and vulnerable communities.  The amount of funds/cost of services approved ranged between £500-£5,000, with applications demonstrating exceptional impact being approved up to £25,000.

This temporary and exceptional fund includes a procurement management service, purchasing the services Fellows need to continue their urgent work and extend its impact. Support includes purchasing essential equipment such as Personal Protective Equipment, getting information to vulnerable and endangered communities, helping to bring an equity project online and scaling a project to new countries or communities.

Since the Solidarity grant was announced earlier this month, Fellows have put forward a wide range of projects for consideration which have included proposals that partner with existing agencies to draw attention to communities most impacted by COVID-19; projects that engage the expertise of fellows from other parts of the world to scale the reach and impact of their existing work and the repurposing of responsive 'aid' activities into opportunities to strengthen communities' resilience.

During this pandemic, a light has been shone on the entrenched inequities that we know pre-dated the current crisis. What brings hope to this moment is the range of innovative, inspiring and courageous ways that our community of Fellows continue to respond.