Deadline: 09-Nov-20
The Staffordshire County Council is inviting applications for its DoingOurBit Community Grants Scheme to help groups that are making a difference to vulnerable older people or children and families in Staffordshire.
Keeping people safe and independent is a top priority for Staffordshire County Council. This can only be done in partnership with the communities, who have shown themselves to be resilient and resourceful. The Covid-19 pandemic has touched everyone and impacted on Voluntary and Community organisations large and small. The county council has seen established organisations step up and new organisations form. The council wants to support these organisations with #DoingOurBit Community Grants Scheme.
Objectives
This one-off funding pot is available to:
- Support groups and organisations that will help meet the needs of vulnerable older adults.
- Support groups and organisations that will help meet the needs of vulnerable children and families.
Focus Areas
- Support Community focused Mutual Aid/community support groups including those that have emerged during the pandemic.
- Encourage support for vulnerable people that helps them to maintain their independence at home and in their community. This can include things like; debt management, loneliness, emotional wellbeing.
- Support new projects or help support organisations to continue with existing projects.
- Grow a network of Family Hubs and Community Help Points, across Staffordshire. These help points will actively help people to identify and access activities in their community.
- Focus on groups who are most disadvantaged, either through age, vulnerability or low income.
- Focus on mitigating the significant impacts of Covid-19, particularly for older people who have become more isolated or children who have seen huge impacts on their development.
Funding Information
- The scheme intends to support as many organisations as possible so the maximum that applicants can apply for is £2,500.
Eligibility Criteria
Who can apply & what can the grant be used for?
- Grants must show how they meet the focus of the fund.
- Grants are for newly formed community groups, or existing community and voluntary groups. This fund is not intended for business and statutory organisations.
- The fund is not intended to directly support commercial activities but can be used to signpost people to local businesses.
- Match funding is not essential, but they would encourage groups to seek funding from multiple sources where they can.
- Groups are encouraged to seek support, where appropriate, e.g. from Support Staffordshire or SCYVS prior to submitting their proposal.
- Groups are advised to inform their local County Councillor before submitting their application. If applicants are submitting a bid that covers more than one district they only need to contact one County Councillor.
- Decisions about funding will be made by a panel and all funding applications will be reviewed at the same time.
- Successful organisations will have full responsibility and liability for how it uses the grant, for example towards salary costs.
Evaluation
- They will ask each successful applicant to prepare a short report about their project with a case study to demonstrate impact.
- They will ask each successful organisation to demonstrate how the funding has been spent.
For more information, visit https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/DoingOurBit/Funding.aspx