Kingston Council’s Community Resilience Fund – United Kingdom

Deadline: 16-Oct-23

Kingston Council has launched the Community Resilience Fund to help address the cost of living crisis by empowering the charities, voluntary sector and communities.

In April, Kingston Council launched a fund of £720,000 to support the voluntary, cultural and community groups across the borough. Funding has already been made available to help residents with the rising cost of living through Kingston’s allocation from the UK Government’s Household Support Fund.

It is an opportunity to focus again on projects that support the residents and build resilience during these challenging times. This means practical support for food, money, health, wellbeing and equal access to services for the residents, families, communities and those who are vulnerable or have special needs.

The fund is supporting the organisations and groups themselves to survive the cost of living crisis, enabling them to continue with the vital work they do in supporting the residents and communities.  It will focus on investing in culture and wellbeing and strengthening the communities to help them thrive.

The fund is running for one year with three opportunities to apply for funding and three routes in each round.

Types of Funding

• There are three types of funding available through the Community Resilience Fund:
  • Core costs – The council will reimburse an increase in an organisation’s rent or energy bills up to a maximum value of £3,000. Funding will be awarded based on how the organisation supports the borough to be resilient.
  • Small projects – Up to £5,000 to maintain or develop a community resilience response. Organisations will provide a short proposal and funding will be awarded based on how the response supports the borough to be resilient.
  • Large projects – £20,000 to develop a new approach (exceptional applications over £20k may be considered). Organisations will provide a detailed proposal and outcomes monitoring. Funding will be awarded based on how the new approach supports the borough to be resilient.

Criteria

• An organisation or community group can apply for more than one funding type at any one time. Submitting an application for both Core Costs and a Small Project or Core Cost and a Large Project are welcome, however it would be unusual for an organisation to be successful in both Small and Large Projects as the Council wishes to increase resilience across the borough and ensure the deliverability of projects.
• Applicants can apply for any funding options they see as appropriate. The Council may cross-check with other funding streams to ensure that funding is not being duplicated.
• The funding is targeted towards supporting voluntary, cultural and community sector organisations and community groups in Kingston borough to thrive. Where the majority of your services are delivered within and for Kingston’s community you are welcome to apply. You will be asked if 80% or more of your service users are Kingston residents as part of the application process. Groups do not have to be based in Kingston to apply.
• Faith based organisations are welcome to apply to this fund. The council takes an inclusive approach to funding so this council grant cannot be used for the promotion of a single faith and they encourage applications that are inclusive.
• Limited (Ltd.) companies are not excluded from applying for the Community Resilience Fund but the local authority will need to be assured by the application that the funding will be used for the benefit of the community and not for profit. There must be no charge to the community to use the service. It must be a new or different offer that shows a benefit to the local community, not expanding an existing business. There must be clear measurables in place to show that this is happening.
• Where you are applying as a collective of organisations, you will need to make one organisation the responsible lead organisation. That organisation will be responsible financially and for the outcomes of the bid. They will sub-contract the other organisations to deliver and will distribute funds to other partners. The primary and secondary named persons should both be from the lead organisation.
• There are activities that the Community Resilience Fund will not fund. It will not fund activities normally undertaken by statutory organisations, minibuses, endowments (to provide a source of income), political activities, or historic activities. The council takes an inclusive approach to funding so this council grant cannot be used for the promotion of a single faith.
• Organisations cannot apply for funding for infrastructure or capital projects such as IT infrastructure, major building works, or rent for larger premises. The establishment of community kitchens are the exception to this as a key priority for the council. Organisations cannot bid for funding to further distribute to other organisations or individuals as grants.

For more information, visit Kingston Council.