Businesses whose income has evaporated during the coronavirus lockdown are not just sitting around waiting for restrictions to lift or rescue loans to be processed, they are doing their utmost to serve their communities in a variety of different ways.

Rolls Royce Motors based at Goodwood is producing face visor kits from the same factory that manufactures its fleet of luxury cars with the same high standards of quality and safety. They have also joined a consortium set to manufacture more than 10,000 vitally needed ventilators to help battle against the coronavirus. Craig Askew, the Executive Vice President of control systems said ‘Rolls Royce has a crucial role to play in the fight against COVID-19’.

Brighton Gin has partnered with the Lewes based premium skincare producer AS Apothecary to create a skin-safe, vegan hand sanitiser.

If you have a car or van in your household that is less than 15 years old, the Brighton Karshare scheme would love to hear from you. Your vehicle will be made available for use in Brighton and Hove to care for people at this time of national crisis. Together with our community partners, we will sanitise and clean it, check it, insure it and then make it available for NHS staff, NHS volunteers, food banks, charities and care workers to help get them around wherever they’re needed, caring for people and delivering much needed food and medical supplies.
At the end of the week your vehicle will be returned to you, fully cleaned and sanitised again.

Mid Sussex Timber has provided a range of items, including goggles, safety glasses and face masks. Alex Waters, Mid- Sussex Timber’s Operations Director, said we were delighted to help with the donation of PPE. There is no more important place for it to be than with health professionals at this difficult time.

FATBOY SLIM aka Norman Cook has announced a free Brighton Concert for all NHS staff, Ambulance, Fire Service and Policeworkers which he hopes will take place later this year at the city’s largest venue - the Brighton Centre. He said ‘By the time life returns to normal, we will all want to celebrate and I would like to do my bit to reward and thank everyone who has been holding our lives together in these most difficult of times’.

Komedia Brighton will be live-streaming weekly Krater Comedy Club shows, to keep the laughter alive, every Friday at 8pm. During the stream people will have the option to pay what they can for the show in the form of a donation which will be used to give Komedia and the comedians involved the best possible chance of surviving this incredibly difficult time. The first week’s show was hosted by award- winning MC Stephen Grant with special guests Jeff Innocent, Lily Philips, John Moloney, Rob Deering and headliner Chris Turner, who appeared live from LA, plus the best clips from past Krater shows. Live streams will be posted on Komedia’s Youtube channel Komedia Live.

School children and young people across Brighton & Hove and East Sussex are being offered online lessons during the Covid-19 lockdown to help them keep making music. The education music service run by Brighton & Hove Music & Arts and East Sussex Musicnormally teaches over 5,000 pupils each week with instrumental and vocal lessons in schools. Virtual tutorials have been set up for children to join live classes online.
Over 2,000 children have signed up to take part in lessons with professional music teachers. Peter Chivers, Head of Brighton & Hove Music & Arts said: “Despite not being able to physically teach pupils, we want to continue to support young musicians with practising their skills while they are in isolation with their families at home.
“Playing music has been proven to have a positive impact on
mental health and now more than ever, children and young people are going to need extra help and encouragement to stay motivated.”

Lego has launched a new website which encourages families worldwide to connect to play-based learning across social media. The hope is that families and children can connect online via their free site to share creativity and play ideas, learn from LEGO designers and help children to continue building life-long skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and developing new forms of fun while away from school. The initiative also aims to alleviate stress on parents during this unprecedented event.

Along with other partners, the Amazon logistics network is delivering test kits to diagnostic sites set up around the UK and to NHS staff and others on the front lines of this crisis.
To support those in the UK who are most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, Amazon has committed £3.2 million, including a donation to the British Red Cross and a fund to support local organisations in communities where its employees live and work.

The high street fashion chain Reiss is donating 10,000 masks across the Guys and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Barts Health Trust to help support the increasing need for protective equipment. In collaboration with Emma Willis,
MBE (Founder of Style for Soldiers), Reiss are supporting the ’Style for Surgeons’ initiative with a fabric donation to create over 900 scrubs for a network of UK hospitals.

Ricardo Engineering in Shoreham have been making
face shields for the Charter Medical Centre in Hove. CEO Dave Shemmans personally delivered the first delivery to the centre and he was greeted by some very grateful nurses.