Deadline: 16-Jun-22
Applications are now open for COMF Contain Outbreak Management Small Grants to enable these organisations to continue to deliver vital services that support communities and residents, grants are being awarded from Oxfordshire County Council’s COMF (Contain Outbreak Management Fund).
Aims
The funding also aims to provide sustainability for the Voluntary and Community Sector post-pandemic, to enable communities to recover and renew.
- Increase the number of organisations who can receive funding, to continue enabling people to remain self-isolated as required, advised or preferred. Focus on supporting organisations who have the mechanisms to provide wraparound support in communities so that they can expand it and be in a position to deliver in the winter, should they see a significant spike again.
- Minimise the risk of people leaving their house when required to self-isolate
- Support people self-isolating to remain connected and supported at home
- Minimise the impact on physical and mental well-being of periods of self-isolation
- Increase individual and community resilience to the direct impact of COVID-19 and the secondary impacts of self-isolation, thereby increasing compliance with guidance and requirements for testing and isolation and reducing the likelihood and impact of infection
- Support long term sustainability of the VCS across organisations and enable organisations to continue to deliver vital services in line with the county council’s COVID Renewal and Recovery Strategy.
Funding Information
smaller grants of £500 to £1,501 are available
Types of Activity
Examples of activities covered by contain outbreak funding include:
- Community transport: volunteer driver schemes – to support residents in attending important appointments such as accessing vaccinations and key health appointments
- Provision of food and essential packages – through food banks, community larders, community fridges, meals on wheels and personal food shoppers
- Befriending schemes – providing phone calls to residents unable to leave the house and signposting to key services
- Digital inclusion projects with hard-to-reach groups and individuals to support people to live well at home
- Community Support Groups – providing localised support to residents to reduce their need to leave the house, such as dog-walking, prescription collection, food and essential supplies collection and delivery. Linking in with social prescribing projects across the county
- Supporting and developing innovative schemes and projects, joining up grassroots organisations to create sustainability and improve access to services and support across the county
- Reaching sections of the community at high risk, such as areas of economic deprivation
- Reaching black and minority ethnic groups and communities of culture, not just place; advisory groups for underrepresented communities and supporting them to have vaccinations, for example Recovery and renewal post-covid: groups that are helping to rebuild communities, such as groups providing support for mums and babies who didn’t get the same support during COVID.
What They Are Looking For?
- The beneficiaries must be people (not an individual), rather than animals and the environment more generally.
- They will fund ongoing running costs, one-off events or a programme of events.
- They will fund revenue costs (e.g. volunteer costs, PPE costs) and capital costs (e.g. IT hardware), but you must explain why the expenditure is required for your project.
- Permission is required for the sale of grant-funded capital items within three years of their purchase.
- Grants are not available for direct cash payments to members of the community.
- The number of people participating will be considered and proportional funding assigned as appropriate.
- The project must be completed within 12 months of application.
- Funds cannot be awarded to cover costs already paid for.
- The project budget must be itemised and well costed, indicating where other funds have been secured.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply for funding from Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF), your group must:
- Be a registered charity, constituted group or social enterprise/CIC
- Be based in Oxfordshire and/or have beneficiaries in Oxfordshire
- Have at least three trustees or committee members who are not related to each other
- Have a bank account in its own name with at least two unrelated signatories, open for three months or more
- Be open to people of all religions and political affiliations, and must not proselytise
For more information, visit https://oxfordshire.org/ocf_grants/comf-contain-outbreak-management-small-grants/