Chief executive of Northamptonshire Community Foundation receives MBE in New Year's Honours

The chief executive of Northamptonshire Community Foundation has been recognised in the New Year's Honours list.

Victoria Miles has been awarded an MBE in recognition for services to the community in Northamptonshire during Covid-19.

Reacting to the news, Victoria tweeted a message of thanks and gratitude to all those involved in the effort to support community groups during the pandemic.

"Celebrating this news tonight, but actually accepting this MBE on behalf of my amazing team at @NorthantsCF who have gone above and beyond to distribute much needed funds to those mainly volunteer organisations during the pandemic," Victoria said.

The community foundation did, and continues to do, fantastic work during the pandemic.

In the first six months following the initial lockdown in March 2020, Northamptonshire Community Foundation gave out £1.4 million of funding to local projects.

Compared to the average £1.2 million a year, it was clear to see just how much the pandemic had affected the work the foundation completes.

From food banks in temporarily closed pubs, to care package projects, the foundation provided funds to groups in every corner of the county that provided much needed support for thousands of local people affected by the pandemic.

Speaking at the time, Victoria said: "It is clear that there has been an outpouring of generosity from people.

“There is still that action going on and we will continue to support it.

“There is always the issue of accessing funds, but we have bigger pots we can apply to so we can get money out to groups.”

The foundation continued its work to support those affected.

The Response and Recovery Fund supported more than 300 projects across the county, including those providing food aid and medical supplies, counselling services and mental health support, community transport services, educational activities and general health and wellbeing support.

In addition to emergency funding, Northamptonshire Community Foundation staff were able to safely work from home and additionally gave out £1 million for other activities supporting healthy communities, meaning a total of over £2.5 million was distributed throughout 2020.

In September this year, the foundation launched a new fund to support social enterprise initiatives in a bid to help with the economic recovery from the pandemic.

Social enterprises based in the county can apply for up to £5,000 to help support work and economic growth within local communities.