LLoyds TSB Foundation/ Specialist/ Deadline 23 January 2025

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Specialist Programme – Lloyds Bank Foundation

This programme is for small, local, specialist charities supporting people facing complex issues.

Under this programme the Foundation will support charities to strengthen their capacity and capabilities and become more resilient through a range of tailored development support offers alongside a three-year unrestricted grant of £75,000.

Applicants must be providing in-depth services in one of the following themes:

  • Addiction
  • Asylum Seekers and Refugees
  • Care Leavers
  • Domestic Abuse
  • Homelessness
  • Offending
  • Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
  • Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery

The deadline for applications is 23 January 2025. Apply for funding under our Specialist Programme

Health/ Cambs and Peterborough areas / Deadline 26 January

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Cheshire Community Foundation are proud to announce round two of the Assura and NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB Grants Programme. This programme will focus on projects looking to reduce health and wellbeing inequalities, and improve access to health services, supporting people to live a healthier life.

Please make sure you download and read the Programme Brief available a This document outlines the details of what you will need to know to apply.

Please note: This programme is not taking place in Cheshire Community Foundation’s usual locations in Cheshire and Warrington.

This round of funding is open for projects taking place in the following Integrated Neighbourhood areas, which were not funded in round one of this grant programme:

North South
Bretton, Park and Hampton NW Cambridge
Central, Thistlemoor and Thorpe North Villages
Peterborough and East Meridian/Granta/Royston
South Peterborough Ely South and/or North
St. Ives
A1 Network
Huntingdon or St Neots
Fenland
Peterborough Partnerships

Any areas not funded in this round will be considered for the third round of the programme.

Who can apply?

The programme is designed to support smaller projects with measurable impact that are developing new or innovative ways of working – or taking forward ideas or concepts to implementation. Projects for existing work, can be considered, if they positively develop the activity further.

Applicants should:

  • Be charitable and local to the area they wish to work, and have a good understanding of the community. We cannot fund statutory health organisations.
  • Have identified a clear health and wellbeing issue in a specific local community.
  • Be able to involve local people in understanding the problem and developing solutions.
  • Have evidence of a clear need.
  • Have a strong track record of implementing solutions and delivering projects.
  • Be able to collaborate effectively with partners, referral agencies and stakeholders.
  • Have robust outcome monitoring and reporting methods.
  • Have a well costed and reasoned budget.
  • All projects must also meet Cheshire Community Foundation’s grant-making principles (acknowledging that this programme is specifically for projects delivered in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough).

What can we apply for?

This programme will fund projects which have clearly identified a need related to health and wellbeing inequalities, or access to health services. You can apply for up to £12,000. Projects must clearly outline how they will address that need, and can apply for costs related to the following items:

  • Staffing/Salary Costs, alongside other related expenses
  • Volunteer costs such as expenses
  • Activity costs, including room hire.
  • Small Capital items (e.g. craft materials, project-based equipment etc.)
  • Transport Costs
  • A small contribution towards project related overheads. This programme will not fund core costs.

How do I apply?

Please make sure you download and read the Programme Brief, available at the left hand side of this page. This document outlines the details of what you will need to know to apply. We also strongly recommend that you read our Grantmaking Principles and Minimum Requirements, as all eligible projects will be required to meet these.

All organisations wishing to apply must first submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) form by 11.59pm on 26th January 2025. This form can be requested by e-mailing debbie@huntsforum.org.uk.

Before submitting your EOI, you must also gain the support of your local Integrated Neighbourhood Manager, who can be contacted as follows:

Organisations who are successful at the EOI stage will then be invited to submit a full application form.

Timeline

  • The deadline to submit your Expression of Interest form is 11.59pm on 26th January 2025.
  • Applicants will hear the results of their Expression of Interest submissions in Early February.
  • They will then have until 11.59pm on 2nd March 2025 to submit their full applications. If you are successful, you will be e-mailed a link to the full application form.
  • Final decisions will be communicated in Early April 2025, with projects delivering from Mid-April 2025 onwards.

Successful grantees will be required to complete a brief, online End of Grant Monitoring Form including case studies outlining the impact of the grant award and accounting for the grant funds spent.

If you have any questions, you can email  to arrange a chat via grants@cheshirecommunityfoundation.org.uk or call the grants team on 01606330607.

Accessibility

At Cheshire Community Foundation,  believe that everyone should be able to access our funding opportunities fairly. We recognise that some people may experience barriers when applying to us. If you need any additional support applying for any of our grant programmes due to a disability or poor health, please contact us at grants@cheshirecommunityfoundation.org.uk, or by calling 01606 330607. A member of our team will be happy to support you on your application journey, or to find alternative ways for you to get us the information we need to assess your application.

Updated Safeguarding Threshold Documents Now Available

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The Safeguarding Children Partnership is pleased to announce the release of the updated Threshold Documents: Continuum of Help and Support for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

These resources, designed to provide clarity and consistency for cross-county partners, are now accessible on their website. While the core framework remains consistent, service-specific guidance has been updated in the appendices. They welcome your feedback to help them continue supporting children and families in achieving the best possible outcomes.

The updated documents can be found here:

Digital In Volunteering Toolkit

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Staying on top of what technology can do to help us can be daunting. The Digital in Volunteering toolkit is free to use and is intended to help busy people without technical backgrounds to navigate some of the main issues in using technology to best help manage volunteers.  Going forward, the idea is to create a community of practice.

The toolkit offers, tips, guidance and creates benchmarks for good practice.  It is an initiative of the Association of Volunteer Managers and TeamKinetic and has been designed by Gethyn Williams.

The toolkit is being rolled out in three parts.  Part one was launched on December 24, with the remaining parts to follow in 2025.  Part one is designed around 5 elements, with each supported by case studies:

  • Get confident around digital – this gives lots of guidance around choosing a volunteer management system
  • Develop your digital vision – clarifies objectives around the themes of using technology to enhance scale, efficiency and volunteer experience.
  • Understand the volunteer journey – consider all the points of interaction a volunteer has with an organisation and how technology could enhance this.
  • Pitch for digital investment – making the business case to an organisation’s senior management to invest in effective technology
  • Map out your organisational journey – how to create a project plan to deliver an organisation’s digital vision.

You can access part one  of the toolkit here

Part two will comprise bite-size guides to key areas, including utilising technology to support communications, accessibility, recognition and evaluation.

Part three will explore the opportunities and challenges technology is likely to raise in the longer term.

To find out more and to join the community of practice, check out the Association of Volunteer Managers’ website

Talking Together in Cambridgeshire Update (December 2024)

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Festival of Stories 2025

The Talking Together in Cambridgeshire team is excited to announce the upcoming Festival of Stories in 2025! This year’s festival, taking place from February 19th to 26th, will focus on the value of everyday stories in children’s lives.

The festival aims to showcase how stories can be used in fun and interactive ways to enhance children’s communication, language, and literacy skills. The stories shared will reflect children’s daily experiences, validating their importance and fostering a sense of connection.

The festival will also highlight how parents and carers across Cambridgeshire can use the “50 Things to Do Before You’re Five” program to create new stories based on everyday activities, build lasting memories, and strengthen family bonds. Organizers encourage sharing the Festival of Stories flyer with families who might be interested in participating.

Get Involved!

For those interested in getting involved with the festival, please contact helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Online Festival Events

The festival features two online events:

  • Stories from Objects Workshop: Led by Nicola Wallis of The Fitzwilliam Museum, this workshop is designed for those working with children aged 0-5 in Cambridgeshire. It will be held on February 11th, 2025, from 7pm to 8pm via Teams. Tickets cost £5 for participants within Cambridgeshire.
  • Talk a Little Walk, Little Bear Sensory Storytelling Session: International storyteller Cassandra Wye will lead this interactive session for children aged 2-5 with their parents, settings, or schools (excluding Peterborough). It will be held on February 26th, 2025, from 10:30 am to 11:00 am via Teams. Attendance is free, but limited to one ticket per family or setting.

Introduction to Making It REAL Training (Funded Places Available!)

The Talking Together team is pleased to announce the availability of funded places for the one-day Introduction to Making It REAL course. The Making It REAL approach focuses on four key strategies that parents can use to create a home learning environment that supports early literacy development:

  • Opportunities: Creating opportunities for children’s literacy development in the home environment.
  • Recognition: Recognizing and encouraging children’s literacy milestones.
  • Interaction: Interacting positively with children and supporting real-life literacy tasks.
  • Modeling: Acting as models of literacy users, so children see parents using literacy in everyday life.

Cambridgeshire Skills is offering funding to cover course costs for eligible participants. Eligibility criteria include being 19 years or older and a resident in the UK, EU, or EEA for the past three years. Additional criteria may apply for the staff costs bursary.

More details about the course dates, booking information, and eligibility criteria can be found on the Talking Together in Cambridgeshire website. Places are limited, so book soon!

Other Communication, Language, and Literacy Courses

Flyers for additional upcoming courses are also attached, including:

  • Hanen’s Teacher Talk Module 1: Encouraging Language Development in Early Childhood Settings
  • Talking Tennis: Building on Our Interaction with Little Ones

Further information about these courses can be found in the Communication and Language section of the Talking Together Professional Development Programme website. As with other courses, places are limited, so book early! Website.

New Resources: Book-Sharing Videos

The Talking Together team emphasizes the importance of book-sharing, an interactive way for parents and children to explore books together. Tilly Kirby, from the University of Cambridge’s Play in Education Development and Learning team, has created two videos explaining book-sharing benefits, techniques, and examples for both early years practitioners and parents/caregivers. The team encourages sharing the video for parents and caregivers with families.

For more information about the Talking Together in Cambridgeshire program, please contact helen.wootton@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Net Zero Villages Grant/ South Cambridgeshire District Council / Deadline 26 January

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Net Zero Villages Grant Scheme

 

There’s a grant-funding opportunity for community groups, parish councils and businesses in South Cambridgeshire. Applications are now open for the Net Zero Villages grant scheme, delivered by South Cambridgeshire District Council with funding from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. Applications will close 26 January 2025, 11:59PM.

What is available?

Grants of between £20,000 and £100,000 are available for projects that help build resilient, low carbon communities. As the grant is aimed at rural communities, areas such as Milton, Histon, Impington, Fulbourn and Teversham are not eligible for funding because they lie in the Cambridge Built Up Area (you can check if your village lies in this BUA here).

 

The Net Zero Villages scheme will fund capital projects under the following themes:

  • Energy Efficiency and Generation – Examples include installing insulation, LED lighting, solar panels, wind turbines, or battery storage for renewable energy.
  • Low Carbon Transport – Initiatives such as community-run electric shuttle buses or other sustainable transport solutions.
  • Nature-Based Solutions – Projects like green roofs, walls, or tree planting to cool and enhance community spaces.

How to apply

To read the full grant guidance and make your application, visit South Cambridgeshire District Council’s website – Net Zero Villages Grant – South Cambs District Council.

If you plan on making an application, we recommend you attend the application workshop on Wednesday 18 December, 7-8:30pm. You can also book a 20-minute slot with an officer on Friday 20 December 2024 between 9:00am and 4:00pm.

Email climateandenvironment@scambs.gov.uk to sign up for the workshop, or to book a slot.

Supporting Rural Communities grant/ Royal Countryside Fund / Deadline 25 April

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Supporting Rural Communities grant

What is available?

The Royal Countryside Fund are launching our UK-wide Supporting Rural Communities grant programme on Friday 10th January 2025. This new differentiated funding will support transformative, community-led initiatives across the UK, unlocking the huge potential for positive change in rural communities. The aim is to support innovative solutions that will “power up, not prop up” communities, inspiring change and encouraging economic vibrancy.

Organisations can apply for grants of up to £25,000 over a period of 24 months to deliver activities along the themes of:

  • Keeping young people in the countryside
  • Powering up rural communities
  • Increasing environmental sustainability
  • Building emergency resilience in rural areas

How to apply

To find out more and to apply please visit: Supporting Rural Communities – The Royal Countryside Fund

5th April 2025 – Deadline for full applications.

 

County Council needs residents views on Business plan for new year

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Each year Cambridgeshire County Council is expected to set a budget inline with their annual Business Plan. this outline where the council aims to spend council tax, make saving and still deliver the service they an to their residents in line with their legal requirements.

As part of this they have gone outwith a  two-part consultation process to gather feedback, and views of it’s residents.

Timeline

  • 4 November 2024 – Engagement Survey opened
  • 2 December 2024 – Engagement Survey closed
  • 9 December 2024 – Consultation Survey opened
  • 17 December 2024 – Draft Business Plan and Engagement Survey results are discussed at the Strategy, Resources and Performance Committee
  • 9 January 2025 – Consultation Survey closes
  • 28 January 2025 – Business Plan and Consultation Survey results are discussed at the Strategy, Resources and Performance Committee
  • 11 February 2025 – Business Plan discussed at Full Council

While the engagement survey has now closed, they are still looking for feedback as part of the consultation survey.  Here they are seeking the views on spending and saving proposals which have been put forward in the draft Business Plan.

 

To read more information about Cambridgeshire County Council Business plans – Click Here
To read the latest Business plan – Click Here
To take part in the Consultation survey – Click Here 

Grants to help young people into employment / CABWI Charity / Deadline 3 February

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CABWI Charity getting disadvantaged young people into employment – up to £35k available.

What is available?

Grants of up to £35,000 a year are available for one year, subject to monitoring and availability of funds.

The CABWI Charity is offering grants to support young people and adults to gain additional skills and confidence to enter the labour market and develop their careers, anywhere in the UK.

They are looking for projects that work with individuals with complex barriers to employment, enabling them to move closer or into employment, including but not restricted to ex-service personnel and ex-offenders, work directly with young people and adults who are either not in employment, education, or training (NEET), or with young people who are at risk of becoming NEET, to improve their access to employment and the labour market, or increase the life skills of people so that they may further develop their careers, with a particular focus on the water, utilities, and construction industries.

Who can apply?

  • Your organisation must be a registered charity.
  • It must be based in, and delivery its services in the UK.
  • It must work directly with young people and adults who are not in employment, training, or education.

For organisations with a turnover of £231,000 or less, you may only apply for a maximum of 15% of your last year’s turnover.

How to apply

Application guidelines: cabwi.org.uk/application-guidelines

The next round of funding will open on 6 January 2025. To apply please visit the website: cabwi.org.uk

They will be hosting a webinar to outline the application process on Wednesday 8 January 2025 at 12 noon.  Send an email with “webinar” in the heading to grants@cabwi.org.uk if you would like to attend.

Deadline: 3 February 2025

 

National papers tell us what we already know

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Several national reports have been released in recent months, painting a rather bleak picture for our sector. However, these reports may provide us with the data we need to advocate for our cause.

Despite our challenges, it’s important to remember that these issues are widespread and that support is available from Support Cambridgeshire. Whether you’re struggling with funding, volunteer recruitment, or other specific challenges, there are resources to help you find tailored solutions for your organisation, so do get in contact info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk

NCVO Almanac

The Almanc 2024 is a great paper to look at if you want to see the national state of our sector and see the trends happening around us. It’s always a little behind where we are, but it holds great data that showcases things like financials, workforce, impact, and finally, volunteers of the sector. First published in 1996 it is a go to national paper to use if you want to compare your organisation with the national picture.

Some of the headlines from the report:

  • The voluntary sector is still recovering from the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic with an increase of groups of 0.5%
  • 14.2 million people volunteered at least once with a group or organisation
  • London remains the centre of the UK’s Voluntary sector, but micro and small organisations account for 80% of the sector.
  • Women make up 68% of the sector’s workforce, and it has the oldest workforce in the UK.

To read the full report click here. 

 

Community Life Survey

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Office for Civil Society compiled this report. The new updates reflect the 2023/24, along with the quarterly release for January to March. Much like the Almanac, this paper is great if you want to reference national statistics or see what is happening from a broader perspective. This report is more than just the voluntary and community sector, though volunteering is a section; here, you can find the national trends around things like loneliness, neighbourhood and community, charitable giving, civic engagement and social action.

Some of the headlines from the report:

  • 1 in 10 of adults have reported high levels of indirect loneliness (a score of 8 or 9)
  • 61% of adults felt they belonged ‘very strongly’ or fairly strongly to their immediate neighbourhood.
  • 81% of adults agree that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together
  • 16% of respondents had taken part in formal volunteering (defined as giving unpaid help to clubs, groups and organisations) at least once a month.

To read the 2023/24 report click here

 

Cambridgeshire State of the Sector

While our local version of the two above papers hasn’t recently launched any new data, we are collecting it for next year’s report. So, if you’re linked to a non-profit organisation, then we want to know how you find the current environment to work in. The survey is open to any one who is linked with a group should you volunteer or work for them, you may not know all the answers to all the questions but those you do will help Support Cambridgeshire to make the local case to our decision makers in Cambridgeshire. Also, you are welcome to use this data in your own applications or generally to see how Cambridgeshire is against the national picture.

To take part in the 2025 report click here – closing date 17th February 2025

To read past reports click here

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