Deadline: 30-Jun-23
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council has partnered with the Heart of England Community Foundation to deliver a new grant scheme aimed at supporting the resettlement, integration, and inclusion of people from refugee and migrant communities in Solihull.
Over the last two years Solihull has welcomed new arrivals from Hong Kong and Ukraine with smaller numbers from Syria and Afghanistan. Alongside the Government’s Resettlement scheme, the Home Office has also accommodated a number of asylum seekers in the Borough.
Heart of England Community Foundation would like Solihull to be seen as an inclusive and welcoming place for new communities and want to support them in making a positive contribution to their new home by promoting the benefits and opportunities that come with successful resettlement and integration.
They want to:
- Ensure that Solihull is able to welcome refugees coming to the UK
- Enable new arrivals to make a positive contribution to the local community
- Enable new arrivals to make a positive contribution to the local economy
Fund Aims
- The scheme will fund activities and projects that aim to promote a sense of welcome for their new arrivals, along with increasing their confidence in navigating their new home and local environment to ultimately enable them to prosper and succeed in Solihull.
- They recognise their new arrivals have a host of skills and expertise that would benefit Solihull and the wider economy, and by launching the fund they are encouraging organisations to develop and deliver new initiatives aimed at fostering independence, nurturing innovation and encouraging collaboration.
- The fund aims to:
- Encourage organisations to network, build capacity and co-create solutions for gaps within their current provision.
- Encourage organisations to try out new approaches to deal with complex issues.
- Support grassroots organisations to extend their reach, pilot new ways of working and improve their visibility within the voluntary and community sector of Solihull.
Fund Themes
- The project proposals will need to fit within one or more of the following themes:
- To support the inclusion and integration of people from refugee and migrant communities into their local neighbourhood and communities
- Community based arts and cultural activity
- Employability and skills
- Promoting social inclusion and participation within the over 50’s
- Promoting good mental health and well-being
- Befriending, companionship, and volunteering
- Learning and improving English language acquisition and skills
- A community event to celebrate Refugee Week with the theme “compassion in the community”.
Funding Information
- Grant Size: £5000 – £10000.
- Grants of up to £5,000 are available for projects supporting the following:
- Asylum seekers
- Afghan refugees
- And up to £10,000 to support Ukrainian refugees.
- To ensure as many organisations as possible can benefit from the grant, organisations can apply for a maximum of two grants from the scheme. Second applications will only be considered after six months of the first grant award.
- The grants will be allocated for a maximum period of 12 months.
They will fund?
- Some Examples of the types of activities they will be looking to fund include:
- Life in the UK sessions
- Trips and outings,
- Sports activities and exercise classes,
- Social activities (Coffee mornings, Gardening, Cooking)
- IT and Language classes
- Inter-generational activities,
- Creative activities (singing, poetry, arts).
- This is by no means a definitive list but an example of some of the types of activities they will be looking to fund.
Location: Solihull.
Eligibility Criteria
- You can apply if you meet the following criteria:
- Registered charity
- Constituted Community groups
- Companies Limited by Guarantee with charitable aims
- Community Interest Companies
- Co-operatives – registered Community Benefit Societies and
- registered Industrial and Provident Societies
- Social Enterprises
- Additionally, your organisation income level must be equal to or less than £500,000, as shown in your most recent annual accounts. Reserves must be in line with the Charity Commission guidelines.
For more information, visit Together in Solihull Fund.