Reconnect County Grant Program (UK)

Deadline: 7-Jan-22

Applications are now open for the Reconnect County Grant Program.

It co-ordinates funding streams to maximise their impact in connecting children and young people with the things they’ve missed during the pandemic. For example, the £5.3 million Holiday Activities and Food Programme funding (HAF) has been combined with other funding streams, such as summer school funding received by schools, to maximise impact and participation.

Themes and Priorities

• Learning missed
  • Address gaps in core learning in science, technology, English, art and maths.
  • Early years language development.
  • Speech, language, communication and social skills to support success in education.
  • Engage those who are struggling to return to school or not enjoying participation in learning.
• Health and happiness
  • Emotional wellbeing for children and young people and ensuring young people get early support.
  • Promote the health and happiness of children and young people from identified communities whose emotional wellbeing has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic (including Black and Minority Ethnic, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller, LGBTQ+ children with a social worker, children with special educational needs, and children affected by domestic abuse or bereavement).
  • Elective Home Education due to anxiety and emotional wellbeing issues related to school.
• Sport, activities and the outdoors
  • Promotion of opportunities and ensuring sustainability to enable continued participation.
  • Family approach or focus to activities. (Link with the Friends, family and community theme).
  • Training and development opportunities for young people, including volunteering.
  • Workforce development and training for sports, activities and outdoor providers. (Link with the Friends, family and community theme).
• Friends, family and community
  • Events for children and young people, both locally and county wide.
  • Transport and accessibility, including localised offers and universal holiday offers.
  • Early years.
  • Inclusion: vulnerable and hard to reach cohorts of young people.
• Economic wellbeing
  • Generating more work related opportunities for young people (work experience, volunteering, part time jobs, apprenticeships, traineeships).
  • Improve the delivery of careers and employability guidance in education, particularly by bringing together employers and education.
  • Supporting young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and those at risk of NEET.
  • Supporting the transition of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and children with a social worker into work.
  • Develop capacity in communities, and the voluntary and community sector, to support the employment prospects of young people.

Funding Information

• Grants of up to £50,000

Outcomes

Reconnect’s dedicated budget is just one aspect of the total resource supporting its aims and outcomes, others include:

• the time of volunteers in community groups and clubs
• the contributions of businesses and organisations
• public donations
• the work of practitioners in the children’s workforce.

Eligibility Criteria

You can apply for a Reconnect County Grant if your project or activity:

• meets at least one of the Reconnect priorities
• will be delivered in at least 3 Kent districts
• will be delivered before the end of August 2022.

For more information, visit https://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure-and-community/community-grants-and-funding/reconnect-county-grant#tab-1