Dear Residents,
Please see details about the 2021 Community Fund below, plus a leaflet attached.
The 2021 Community Fund is now live until the end of October, and applicants can see the detail and apply at www.staffordshire.gov.uk/2021CommunityFund
This year the fund is aimed at groups who have got going already, and need to think about what next – what will their offer be in future? How will they fundraise? How will they grow? What plans did they have before Covid-19 that they can now revisit? This is where this funding comes in, as an investment to speed this up.
2021 Community Fund Rules
What the fund is for
- Projects to get Staffordshire’s voluntary and community sector back to thriving, including initiatives that will help groups to develop or restart their own fundraising; or
- Projects to help paused community activities get going again in a safe way; or
- Projects looking to build on the community energy of the past year and keep it going, e.g. by transitioning new community networks into more formal community groups or Good Neighbour schemes
Deadline for new applications – 31 October 2021.
Deadline for spending granted funding – 31 March 2022.
Match funding
Only required when the application comes from a parish council or a business, in which case the expectation is for 50/50 match funding. For any other applicant, there is no minimum financial match, but they will need to put in their application something about what they are bringing to their community table.
While the Community Fund is about getting community activity back to where it should be in a thriving voluntary and community sector, there are also other funds which may be more suitable.
Covid support funding – Doing Our Bit Covid 19 self isolator grant scheme
This grant is about the direct Covid-19 ‘support’ activities that we saw a lot of in early summer 2020 – e.g. it can be used to help local people who are self-isolating with:
- Accessing food
- Accessing medication
- Accessing daily essentials
- Tackling loneliness / emotional wellbeing support / etc.
The scheme will close when all the funding has been allocated or 30 September 2021, whichever occurs earliest. Applications are made online at the link above and colleagues in Public Health administer this – it is not a fund you control, but are welcome to signpost to.
Covid Recovery funding – Support Staffordshire
For Covid ‘recovery’, the simplest and best place for small-scale support is Support Staffordshire’s funding and training offer. Working with our Public Health team, Support Staffordshire have funding to distribute of up to £200 for groups who need it, alongside free training. This is specifically about groups who need to get going again – funding to get re-started, get back to face to face, and costs clearly associated with re-start: PPE, venue hire, staffing or volunteer expenses, etc.
You should know about this so you can be aware of when to signpost applicants to Support Staffordshire instead – for small scale or really ‘opening up’ focused projects, this is the right route, and comes with training alongside it. People can find their Support Staffordshire Locality Officer for details at https://www.supportstaffordshire.org.uk/contact