News reports located on this page = 2.

Covid-19:- PCC provides emergency funding to support victims of crime most in need

MERSEYSIDE'S Police Commissioner has made an emergency grant available to Victim Support, 1 of the charities she commissions through the Victim Care Merseyside service, to help vulnerable victims of crime that they identify are most in need to buy essential food and hygiene items during the Coronavirus epidemic. The ₤2,000 express grant will enable Victim Support to provide supermarket vouchers to victims of crime who are assessed as being in greatest need during the Covid-19 outbreak due to the direct impact of a crime. In the past year, Victim Support has provided 18 victims and 11 families they were supporting with short term emergency financial help, but in light of the Covid-19 outbreak demand on this service has increased. Victim Support also offers food bank vouchers to victims they assess as most in need due to the impact of a crime

Jane Kennedy said:- "The global Coronavirus pandemic is having a profound effect on so many people in our society and, sadly, it has exacerbated the challenging circumstances experienced by some victims of crime. This hardship grant is designed to assist Victim Support in helping those individuals who are in really desperate circumstances to ensure they can access essential food and hygiene supplies. Victim Support do a tremendous job ensuring that vulnerable victims get the best possible care and support. Sadly, in some circumstances the people they are caring for really do have very little at the moment. I want to enable Victim Support to ensure that no victim of crime is left without food or essential items."

Victim Support's Operations Manager Barbara Oakley said:- "This will have a great impact on the services we are able to offer to those who really need it. After experiencing crime and trauma, financial problems just add to the distress. This extra funding will allow us to support those in genuine need when it is direct impact of criminal behaviour."

If you've been affected by crime, please visit:- VictimCareMerseyside.Org - a 1 stop shop of advice and guidance. It also contains a full directory of organisations that can offer you support to cope and recover.

LightNight in Lockdown - Liverpool in hope
Photographs by Pete Carr.

THE City of Liverpool lit up on Friday, 15 May to celebrate the City's artistic and creative community, on a night that would have seen Liverpool's 11th LightNight Festival. The annual Arts Festival sees 100's of:- artists, producers, creatives, performers, writers and musicians exhibit work at free events in spaces across the City Centre, all on 1 night. Each year, thousands take to the City's streets to enjoy this incredible culture crawl. To mark the evening, which instead saw the City Streets empty during lockdown, artists and arts organisations came together online to share work and buildings lit up to celebrate Liverpool's vibrant arts and culture scene. Liverpool's two famous cathedrals, linked by Hope Street and often host to special LightNight events, were instead lit up by a projection of colours, symbolising hope, solidarity and community. The projections were created in record time by Liverpool tech companies Adlib and Draw and Code, 2 of the City's creative firms who are partners with many of its arts organisations and help keep the City's art life flowing. Online, using the hashtag #LightNightatHome, artists, organisations and creatives who would have participated in the Festival instead shared their work on social media for the public to experience and join in online. The theme of this year's LightNight was 'Home,' reflecting on the nature of home as a physical dwelling, a place of community, family, connection and value. Home is a place both on a map and in our minds.

Charlotte Corrie, Director, Open Culture, producers of LightNight, said:- "At Liverpool's beating heart is its creative community. We are so proud to be part of this City's creative community, and so honoured to provide a platform for it each year. Saying thank you and celebrating each and every person who makes up that artistic community is an important moment for us. The City will be back, and these are the people who will help it get its heart back."

Online highlights included:-

► Barely Believable Bout of Beautiful Avoidance, a night of poetry and storytelling streamed live as part of the WOWFest Lockdown.

► Laura Kate Chapman's Interlace which encouraged the public to make and draw, then share their home-made creations online which highlighted what home means to them.

► Tate Liverpool's live bedtime stories read by the captivating Gav Cross.

► Amina Atiq presenting an adaptation of her touching one woman show Broken Biscuits, commissioned and supported by DaDaFest and Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.

► Write at Home, which encouraged the public to get creative with their writing and share it, a project by a Lovely Word in association with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.

► Merseyswing got dressed up and taught everyone how to do the Charleston.

► Liverpool Philharmonic showcased some of their extensive archive performances from Irish Sea Sessions, Ian Prowse and their own Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra members.

► Convenience Gallery shared art by artists creating new works from home during the lockdown.

► LJMU FaceLab allowed audiences to send in photographs of members of their household, to have them 'morphed' into a single face.

► Constellations live streamed an after party DJ and light installation getting everyone up and dancing at the end of the night.