The £76M Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund has been launched today (24 July 2023).

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The fund will support organisations across England to deliver critical frontline services. Organisations will be able to apply for funding to maintain or expand critical cost of living services from now until the end of March 2024.

Applications will be for amounts between £10,000 and £75,000. The funding is ONLY open to frontline organisations running critical services in communities, in at least one of the follow areas:

  • food and emergency supplies – food and other ‘banks’
  • emergency shelter – homelessness services
  • safe spaces – domestic abuse services and youth services
  • warmth – warm spaces / hubs
  • financial and housing advice.

Applicants MUST be able to demonstrate both increased costs and increased demand.

The fund is part of the £100M for charities announced in the Spring Budget. It will be administered by the National Lottery Community Fund. More information .

The application window is now open and will close at 12 noon on Monday 16 October 2023.

Tesco Stronger Starts Community Grant funding

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With a focus on Schools and Children & Young people’s projects, Tesco community grants are rebranded as Stronger Starts! Applying now for the September to December voting period!

Follow the link to find the application process! Lots of guidance and help or contact sean.silver:groundwork.org.uk for support!

Tesco Stronger Starts (tescocommunitygrants.org.uk)Tesco Stronger Starts (tescocommunitygrants.org.uk)

Lloyds TSB Foundation Local Collaborations programme

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The Local Collaborations programme provides grants of £100,000 over two years and development support for collaborations led by small charities to influence and achieve change locally around three themes:

  1. social security
  2. accommodation
  3. refugee and asylum seeker support.

The Foundation is now open for applications until Friday 22nd September.  The Panel decisions will be in late February 2024.

You can find out more about the grants programme and how to apply at:

https://www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk/funding/local-collaborations

Please sign up to their webinar on Thursday 13th July time for more information (this will be recorded and made available on their website).

You can also email the Foundation at: collaborations@lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk or book a call with their team.

 

Health Determinants Research Funding (HRDC)

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West Northants Council (WNC) have an exciting opportunity to bid for £5 million pounds to host one of a small number of Health Determinants Research Collaborations. Winning this money would help them to tackle the issues that have the biggest effect on the health and wellbeing of people living and working in West Northants. The HDRC will ensure research is used to support everything they do to improve the lives of our communities. The aim is to create research and evidence on what works and share this widely with other local authorities and partners. WNC would like their colleagues working in the Council to better understand the role they play in improving the health and wellbeing of our communities and how what they do can impact this. The HDRC research agenda will be shaped by the things that affect our health and wellbeing (such as where we live and work) and what we can do to make this better. The HDRC will do this through improving research skills of people working in the local authority, ensuring there are the right resources available, and helping colleagues consider how best to use and conduct research in everything they do.

WNC would like members of the public to be involved in the development of the HDRC proposal and funding application to ensure the collaboration considers the things that are important to our communities. We want to ensure all communities are involved in all stages of the development of the HDRC and its research.

If you would like to attend an online workshop to find out more about and discuss the development of the HDRC on 18th July 2023 (1-2pm) or WNC have created a short survey and they would appreciate your time to respond here.

If you would like to be involved in future conversations about the HDRC please email chloe.gay@westnorthants.gov.uk.

The Community Ownership Fund Round 3

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The government is providing £150 million over 4 years to support community groups in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of being lost. There may be several projects which are publicly accessible locations and may require renovations. Voluntary and community groups (and some councils) can bid for funding to acquire important assets and run them for the benefit of the local community. The Fund will run until March 2025 with DLUHC running regular bidding windows throughout the year for applicants to submit a full application to the Fund.

Purpose: Apply for funding to take ownership of assets at risk of loss in the community.

Type of fund: Competitive

Who can apply: Incorporated voluntary and community organisations, and parish, town, and community councils (depending on eligibility requirements) 

Capital funding available: Up to £1 million for all asset types, but DLUHC expect that most awards will be for up to £250,000 of capital funding.

Goals:

  • support community groups to take ownership of assets which are at risk of being lost to the community
  • support community groups where the asset is already in community ownership but needs essential renovations to be sustainable for the long-term benefit of the community
  • strengthen community ownership across the UK
  • strengthen the social infrastructure that helps communities to thrive

Key dates to note:

  • Expression of Interest stage – always open
  • Round 3 Bidding Window 1 – 31 May – 12 July 2023
  • Applications must be submitted by 11:59am on each bidding window’s respective closing date
  • There will be 4 bidding windows each year at regular intervals
  • March 2025 – Fund closes

Example projects may include:

  • Sports and leisure facilities
  • Cinemas and theatres
  • Music venues
  • Museums
  • Galleries
  • Parks
  • Pubs
  • Post office buildings
  • Shops

Examples can be found at: Community Ownership Fund: successful bidders – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Further information can be found at Community Ownership Fund: prospectus – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The National Lottery Community Fund announce their new Strategy

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The new strategy ‘It starts with community’ has been published today – outlining the Lottery ambition and approach through to 2030, a date by which they plan to have distributed £4 billion of funding.

 

In his blog published today, David Knott  (CEO) highlights three core hallmarks which will underpin their work and the approach through to 2030:

 

  1. Changes to our Awards for All offer – The Lottery will double the size of the grant and the amount of time a project can run for, so projects will be able to apply for up to £20,000 to spend over two years. The Lottery see this as s significant change to “turbo-boost” their grassroots offer: These changes come into effect in the Autumn of 2023.

 

  1. Community-led missions – Areas where the Lottery will focus their funding, learning and efforts to influence change. They will work in partnership, rooted in purpose and place, to support the greatest impact and communities to:
    1. come together.
    2. be environmentally sustainable.
    3. help children and young people to thrive.
    4. enable people to live healthier lives.

 

  1. One Fund – Their renewed values and ways of working. They will be inclusive, ambitious, impact focussed, adaptable and compassionate and will take an equity-based approach, investing most where the need is greatest, with people, places and communities who experience poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.

 

Lloyds Bank Foundation – Specialist programme

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The Foundation has a focus to support small, local, specialist charities with an income of between £25,000 & £500,000 where their three-year unrestricted £75,000 grant can make the greatest impact. They will support charities that understand the complexity of the issues people face and are best placed to make a genuine difference to people’s lives.

This year the Foundation will be able to fund 70 charities across England and Wales that are delivering frontline services around eight themes (addiction, asylum seekers and refugees, care leavers, domestic abuse, homelessness, offending, sexual abuse and exploitation, trafficking, and modern slavery).

Unrestricted grants from the Lloyds Bank Foundation will allow charities complete flexibility to use the funding however they see fit, including to cover salaries, rent and utilities, which have become ever more challenging due to the cost-of-living crisis. Through long-term funding, development support and influencing policy and practice, the Foundation helps charities make a life-changing impact, building a more just and compassionate society.

This funding programme incorporates lessons learned from the last five years, which the Foundation recently published in its Lessons for Funder Practice report. These include how offering unrestricted grants and tailored capacity building support to small frontline charities allowed for stability and growth; how having lighter touch processes and streamlining does not sacrifice due diligence; and how relationships and collaborations unlocked new opportunities and educated the Foundation on when to lead and when to follow.

For more details on the Specialist programme head to the Lloyds Bank Foundation website.

Well Northants community grant fund open for applications

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West Northamptonshire Council’s Public Health Team are inviting individuals and organisations who have an idea that will help to improve the health and wellbeing of their local community to apply for a community grant fund as part of the Well Northants programme.

Grants of up to £2,500 are available for residents and organisations who live in the Blackthorn, Kings Heath and St David’s areas of Northampton. Those are invited to put forward their project idea, ensuring that it meets the need of one of the priorities highlighted for that area. These can be found in the table below.

All applicants will be asked to present their project idea at a local event which will be held in each area, for those who live there to come along and vote for the project that they would like to see delivered in their area. The project with the most votes will be awarded the funding and support to help deliver the project in the area.

WNC’s community development workers have been meeting with residents, visiting community groups and hosting café events to better understand local priorities.

The table below includes information on the area priorities, application deadlines as well as details on the community voting day events taking place. Applicants are asked to register their attendance for the community voting day events via the links provided.

Please note that your details will be confidential and will not be shared are further or used for other projects.

The community areas and their priorities

 Area Area priorities Application deadline Community voting day details
Blackthorn Bringing people together

Better communication

Support for families and children

Improving community safety

Healthy clean spaces

 24 February 2023 Event date:

11 March 2023, 10am to 1.30pm

 

Location:

Growing Together Northampton, Longmead Court, Northampton, NN3 8QD

 

Event link to sign up:

Communityvotingblackthorn.eventbrite.co.uk
Kings Heath Getting to know each other

Healthy and clean spaces

Access to services

 24 February 2023 Event date:

11 March 2023, 2pm to 5.30pm

 

Location:

Kings Heath Primary Academy, North Oval, Northampton, NN5 7LN

 

Event link to sign up:

communityvotingkingsheath.eventbrite.co.uk

 
St David’s Bringing people together

Working in partnership

Community safety

Improving communications

 17 February 2023 Event date:

04 March 2023, 2pm to 5.30pm

 

Location:

Saint David’s Church, Eastern Avenue South, Northampton, NN2 7QB

 

Event link to sign up:

communityvotingstdavids.eventbrite.co.uk

 

Support and information:

For more information about the Well Northants community grant including local priorities, deadlines and community voting dates visit: www.westnorthants.gov.uk/community-safety-and-emergencies/community-involvement  or contact the Well Northants Team on: wellnorthantswest@westnorthants.gov.uk

For additional support in completing an application please contact Gayle Wallace at: Gayle.wallace@btconnect.com or call on: 078144 22696.

Gayle will also be hosting online advice and information sessions via zoom at 9:30 am on the following dates:

  • 2, 9, 16 and 23 February
  • 2 March

To join the support sessions on Zoom, please click here at 9.30am on the dates above: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84449836742

Meeting ID: 844 4983 6742

About the Well Northants Programme

West and North Northamptonshire Councils Public Health Teams are taking a community-based approach to address health inequalities in Northamptonshire focusing on those who are most vulnerable. The outcomes we want to achieve are:

  • To build resilience within local communities so that they are empowered to take action together on health and the social determinants of health.
  • Reduce the health inequalities faced by those who are most disadvantaged or excluded.

Well Northants aims to empower communities so they can become more connected, more resilient and improve their wellbeing.

Find the application form here and the guidance form here .

Rural Prosperity Fund – Latest Update

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West Northamptonshire Council have submitted their Addendum for the Rural Prosperity Fund by the due date of the 30th of November 2022.

Following several suggestions made by VCSE organisations, a small consultation session and an Analysis of Data two interventions have been identified. The first is to support local business providing capital grants, and the second is to address the rural challenges of transport.

The Council are awaiting a response to their Addendum but will be publishing their findings in the January 2023 cabinet.

 

The Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF)

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West Northamptonshire Council has been awarded 1.3 million pounds over 2 years to support projects under the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF).

According to the latest data, 176,000 (or 43%) of households live in Rural Areas within West Northamptonshire and this population is growing.

Challenges within this Rural context include an ageing population, lower social mobility, a lack of affordable housing and supply and poor access to digital infrastructure.

The REPF forms part of the wider Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) where Northamptonshire is receiving approximately 5.4 million pounds.

The Government Prospectus for the fund can be seen here: Rural England Prosperity Fund: prospectus – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The REPF funding is divided between supporting Community and Place (in areas of less than 30,000 in population)  and supporting Local Business.

Please note that Northampton Town is excluded from this funding as it has a current population of more than 30,000.

Applications are not being taken at this stage, but organisations are asked to consider Rural Priorities and complete the attached Snapshot Survey. To do this please contact Louis Devayya or Julia Raven to be given the appropriate login information.

West Northamptonshire Rural England Prosperity Fund (snapsurveys.com)

If you have any questions about the fund, please contact West Northamptonshire Council at the following:

VIN attended a workshop on this fund on the 3rd of November 2022. The Presentation from that session can be viewed here.