Tag Archive for: community

IT Grants/ Net Solutions Wales/ Ongoing

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Funding for charity’s ICT development.

 

What is available?

Net Solutions Wales can assist with IT Grants of £10,000 to £20,000 for community / charity groups ICT development.

The funds cover PC’s, laptops, smartboards, projectors (most main stream I.T) software and support.

Restriction of one application per year.

Typical projects that have been awarded include community re-generation/enrichment, community activities and those groups which involve their community in learning new skills.

They will assist in providing knowledge of the IT available and guide you in how best to maximise the Grant with IT that suits its purpose.

This does not affect any Core funding and applications are on a first come first served basis with a decision time of around one month.

 

Who can apply?

Charities and community groups.

 

How to apply

To find out more and to apply please visit: NET Solutions Wales: web design, e-commerce, web hosting: Charities and community grants

LGBT+ Futures: Equity Fund / Consortium / Deadline Thursday 21st November at noon

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What is available?

Thanks to further funding from The National Lottery Community Fund – the largest community funder in the UK, Consortium and its Community Partners are delighted to deliver the second round of the LGBT+ Futures: Equity Fund.

A total pot of £500,000 is available through small grants of between £100 and £25,000 for organisational running costs, projects and organisational / leadership development.

Who can apply?

This Fund has been enabled thanks to National Lottery players and will focus on supporting user-led LGBT+ organisations based in England, who are working with targeted under-represented and under-resourced communities.

How to apply

The fund will close to applications on Thursday 21st November at 12noon. They aim to make decisions as quickly as is practicable and applications will be assessed on a rolling basis.

To apply and ask questions please visit: LGBT+ Futures: Equity Fund (consortium.lgbt)

Health Equity grant/ Legal & General / Apply in summer 2024

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Legal & General’s new £3million ‘Health Equity’ grant Fund, alongside the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE).

What is available?

The Fund aims to support community-based initiatives across the UK which are addressing the social determinants of health.

The Fund has potential to support up to 150 projects tackling non-medical social and economic factors which have an influence on local and national public health, such as housing, education, infrastructure, or quality of work.

  • The Legal & General ‘Health Equity’ Fund is a £3 million fund offering grants of up to £75,000 to place based projects that address the social determinants of health.
  • The fund will initially launch with a trailblazer £1mn available to projects based in the North East of England ahead of a UK-wide launch in the summer of 2024.
  • Example projects that the Fund may support could range from funding for inner-city schools in areas of deprivation to community programmes which address the social determinants behind pressures on A&E services, or partnerships raising awareness of the contribution the natural environment makes to health and wellbeing.

 

Who can apply?

  • To apply you must login or register to be a member of the https://healthequitynetwork.co.uk/. This is a free membership and it will provide you with further information and updates.
  • Once you have signed up and logged in, you will be able to find information about the Fund on the new Legal & General Health Equity Fund page, which is available via the menu bar.
  • Interested parties with projects in the North East of England can submit expressions of interest from 04 June 2024 ahead of the launch of the official application process. The UK-wide launch will open in the summer of 2024.

 

How to Apply:

To find out more about the fund and the process for applying, read the full announcement here: Legal & General and UCL Institute of Health Equity launch new fund to support up to 150 communities across the UK | Legal & General (legalandgeneral.com)

Arnold Clark/ Community/ Open until Dec 2024

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Where: UK

Amount: Up to £2.5K

About:

Arnold Clark, the UK’s largest independently owned, family-run car retailer, has been offering grants to communities in the areas in which it operates since 2021.

This year, registered charities and other not-for-profit groups and organisations from across England, Scotland and Wales can apply for the following support:

  • Cost of Living Support – funding to any registered UK charity or community group whose work directly supports those most affected by the cost-of-living crisis, such as foodbanks, accommodation, poverty relief and where people/communities in the UK are the primary and immediate focus of investment.
  • Our Communities Support – funding to projects embedded in the communities in which Arnold Clark operates and is available to organisations who provide services widely accessible to those within Arnold Clark local communities, addressing the needs of those living within them.
  • Gear Up for Sport – 150 sports kits are given away each month to support youth sports teams across the UK. Any youth team with up to 30 members aged 4 to 15 years can apply.

Projects applying for ‘Our Communities Support’ must address one of the following categories:

  • Animal welfare (benefiting humans)
  • Arts and Culture
  • Community development
  • Disability
  • Education
  • Recreation
  • Relief support
  • Mental health support

 

Website: https://www.arnoldclark.com/community-fund

Who can apply?

Registered charities and other not-for-profit groups and organisations

How to Apply:

Funding is at the discretion of Arnold Clark Community Fund with a possible maximum grant of £2,500.

Applications are reviewed when they are received. Arnold Clark will contact successful applicants on a weekly basis.

Applications are expected to be accepted until the end of December 2024.

Community Growing Grant / South Cambridgeshire District Council/ Closes 31 March 2025

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What is the aim of this funding?

As part of the cost of living support programme, South Cambridgeshire District Council have set up a Grant Scheme to help start Community Growing Projects across South Cambridgeshire. The funding is able to be spent on any capital costs associated with setting up a Community Growing Project, such as raised beds, gardening equipment, soil, and seeds.

Perhaps there is an unused piece of land in your area that could be transformed with the installation of a raised bed, or you volunteer at a Community Orchard that has space to install a raised bed to grow fresh vegetables. You may be part of an existing group or form a group specifically to create and maintain a Community Growing Project. As long as you fit the eligibility criteria and your project will benefit your community, you can apply for up to £500 from this grant to start it.

Who can apply?

An applicant might be:

District: South Cambridgeshire

Applications close: The Community Growing Grant will run until 31 March 2025 or until funds are exhausted.

How to Apply: For more information and to apply please visit: Community Growing Grant – South Cambs District Council (scambs.gov.uk)

Plunkett UK/ Support for community assets/ Closes March 2025

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What is available: Free packages of business support covering everything from financial planning to governance, plus feasibility grants of up to £5,000 and capital grants of up to £45,000.

District: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s market towns and rural hinterlands.

Application opens: March 2024

Applications close: March 2025

Who is the funding for :Community groups across the region to take ownership and operation of local pubs and assets that are vacant or at risk of closure, revitalising assets whilst protecting and providing key local amenities that will benefit the community.

How to Apply: If you would like to apply please phone: 01993 630 022 or email: info@plunkett.co.uk

 

Plunkett UK

Plunkett UK has received funding from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to support communities in the area’s market towns and rural hinterlands to save assets which are at risk of closure or which have already closed, or to bring new services to their locale.

Plunkett supports people in rural areas to set up and run a wide range of businesses which are genuinely owned by local communities, whereby members have equal and democratic control. They represent community businesses throughout the UK, from shops and pubs through to woodlands, farms and fisheries.

Funding from the Combined Authority has enabled Plunkett to offer community groups exploring community business as a way to address their communities’ needs, free packages of business support covering everything from financial planning to governance, plus feasibility grants of up to £5,000 and capital grants of up to £45,000.

Business support and grants will be available until March 2025 and can be accessed by contacting Plunkett on 01993 630 022 or emailing info@plunkett.co.uk.

More information can be found here: www.plunkett.co.uk/cambridgeshire-and-peterborough-combined-authority-area-partner-with-plunkett-to-help-communities-save-community-assets-in-their-area/

 

 

Fundraiser Network: The Superpower of Networks

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The SUPERPOWER of NETWORKS Our members have told us that they want a space to network and build relationships with others from the sector and also with businesses and statutory providers; “that leads to mutual support, knowledge sharing and partnerships.” As a partnership organisation, Support Cambridgeshire is actively harnessing the power of the “hive mind.”….

Read more

Listening to Community Organisations

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By Victoria Hopkins

The Support Fenland project continues at pace this week as we met with members of a wide range of community organisations across the district. A key part of our project is to understand the specific needs of Fenland, so we wanted to talk directly to the groups who are already active in the community.

There are a huge number and wide variety of groups supporting Fenland communities, ranging from large organisations supporting the whole county and beyond, to small voluntary based organisations supporting a very specific area within a town or village. Often these groups have been set up in response to a need that is emerging in the community, and so these groups are vital for support organisations such as CCVS and Hunts Form to listen to when we’re planning how we can better support their work.

At this week’s session we had 19 representatives from 17 different organisations of different sizes, and over a fast paced one hour Zoom call we learnt an awful lot!

When asked about the challenges that their groups are facing, there were some common themes emerging. The ability of each group to reach and communicate with their communities has become limited, either due to social distancing or a reduction in funding. Digital services offered within Fenland do not have a high take-up rate. Volunteers have a lack of confidence; whether that is dealing with new Covid measures or just coming back to volunteering after a significant break, the groups are finding that those volunteers need an increased level of support. Finally, there is a lack of awareness of the variety and scale of the issues within Fenland outside of the district.

We then talked about the opportunities that were coming in the future. There was a lot to celebrate and look forward to, and the focus was on ensuring that all of the positive ways of working that have come out of the emergency Covid response, such as new partnerships, closer relationships and new services, continue.

Finally, the conversation turned to how the groups wanted to raise their collective voice. It was acknowledged that networking and bringing people together will be key, and that there will be many benefits of this; knowing which groups are already delivering services to residents and being able to point people in the right direction, enabling increased partnership working on common issues, giving communities a place to celebrate all that is happening and acting as an advocate for all that is great about living in Fenland.

A huge thanks to everyone who joined us for such an open, honest and lively meeting. We’re looking forward to continuing the conversation with even more members of the community at next week’s open event.

Our notes from the meeting are captured on the graphics below – click them to view full-screen.

Support Fenland: Capturing the Views of Council Officers

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By Ben Pitt

The Support Fenland project starts in earnest with a round-table discussion with council officers about what the voluntary and community sector needs to help it flourish.

Many people see “the council” as a single organisation that does things like parks and bins, but the reality is that Cambridgeshire has four tiers of local government – parish and town councils, district councils, the county council and the combined authority. Each has its own areas of responsibility but they all take an interest in keeping residents healthy and happy. Building strong communities is a vital part of that.

While the elected councillors or Mayor might be the most visible side of local councils, the bulk of work is carried out by council staff. They include dedicated teams at Fenland District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council to support communities. Meanwhile, parish and town councils often have the closest links with the people in their town or village, and much of the work of the parish or town clerk is to respond to the specific needs of their residents. This often goes hand in hand with the activities of local community and voluntary groups.

At Hunts Forum and CCVS we want to ensure that our work in Fenland responds directly to the specific needs of the district. That’s why we started by talking to the council officers who work with residents on a daily basis. We were delighted to be joined by the community development teams from Cambridgeshire County Council and Fenland District Council, the clerks from Wisbech, Chatteris and Christchurch plus our friends at Living Sport and Cambridgeshire ACRE.

We started by asking what the communities of Fenland need from infrastructure organisations, and what the barriers were to accessing that support. Lots of answers came back. Some were practical, such as support with business planning and funding applications for new projects, a volunteer database and peer networking opportunities. Others were more strategic, such as umbrella organisations with the governance in place to hold funds, thereby allowing volunteers with a good idea to focus on delivering it.

Some points were more philosophical. How can we make volunteering a more ‘normal’ thing to do? How do we empower residents to feel that it’s their right to shape their community, rather than their burden? How do we give communities the confidence to seize opportunities?

Finally, we reflected on what infrastructure organisations and councils need to do to ensure that the voices of our communities are heard. The simple answer was to ask them, but there was also a recognition that communities need a reason to want to have that conversation.

We need to ensure that the various people whose job it is to support communities work together effectively, and that the Support Fenland project has a legacy. Too often, people and solutions are parachuted in and make a few ripples, but afterwards things fall back to the way they were before. Our challenge is to change the culture of volunteering and community action in Fenland for the better.

We’re looking forward to talking to the community activists to find out what their perspective is.

The graphics below capture the views expressed during the discussion. Click them to view full screen.

 

 

 

Ask Me Community Ambassador Scheme

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[Republished from www.cambridgewa.org.uk]

People within a survivor’s community are often the first to know that domestic abuse is happening. But lack of understanding and confidence can make people afraid to talk about it, and unsure of how to respond when someone speaks out. Survivors have told us they can feel judged, silenced or isolated by the people around them.

We are changing that through the Change That Lasts Ask Me scheme, developed in partnership between Women’s Aid Federation England and Welsh Women’s Aid.

The project is a simple initiative that equips community members in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough with an understanding of domestic abuse and how to respond to survivors. This knowledge will enable the community to play an active role in ending domestic abuse.

Being a Change That Lasts Community Ambassador

We offer free 12 hour training courses to members of the local community from all backgrounds and identities where they learn about domestic abuse, including its gendered nature, how to challenge the stereotypes surrounding it and how to listen to, believe and direct survivors to specialist support.

Anyone with a connection to Cambridgeshire and/or Peterborough can become an Ask Me ambassador, whether you have been personally affected by domestic abuse or whether you would like to learn more.

After the training, ambassadors are given resources and support to share what they have learned with those around them in ways that feel most comfortable to them. They are encouraged to start conversations about domestic abuse that will help others to better understand the barriers that survivors face in speaking out. An ambassador can commit as much or as little time as they can give.

We keep in touch with Community Ambassadors with new opportunities and events such as ambassador meet-ups, campaign involvement and volunteering. We also send short surveys to find out how they are getting on and how we can support them further.

A Community Ambassador…

… believes in equality of all people, regardless of their gender identity, age, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, cultural beliefs or circumstances.

… listens and believes others that share their personal experiences of domestic abuse.

… is non-judgmental and respectful.

… is passionate about ending domestic abuse.

There is a chance that we may decide that it isn’t appropriate for a person to take on the role if they don’t share these values and qualities. We will work with people to overcome any barriers wherever possible, or we will direct you to a more suitable volunteering or training opportunity.

Interested? Join the Scheme

If you would like to take part, please register your interest through the online form here: REGISTER INTEREST FORM