Ways to Wellbeing Small Grants Fund – UK

Deadline: 21-Aug-23

The Ways to Wellbeing (W2W) and the City of York Council Public Health Team are offering small grants to support projects across the city that enhances community connections and addresses health inequalities.

What they want to achieve?

• They want to fund projects that achieve at least one of these two aims:
  • Enhancing community connections: Enabling isolated people, especially those who feel marginalised, to engage in and feel more connected with their community and informal support networks.
  • Addressing health inequalities: Improving health and addressing the causes of health inequalities, particularly in areas of deprivation or for those disadvantaged by inequality in the city.
• Underpinning both aims is a focus on early intervention and prevention.

Funding Information

• They have £70,000 to award (£20,000 from W2W; £50,000 via Public Health, from the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board).
• Grants must be spent, and all reporting paperwork completed and returned to them, by 31 October 2024.

Type of work they want to fund?

They want to fund projects that deliver at least one of the following activities:

• Social / community initiatives that combat loneliness and improve health, including mental ill-health, through the growth of community relationships and networks.
• Initiatives that help people to access culture and creativity, employment, learning or volunteering.
• Help for people to overcome barriers to leaving their home or support for people experiencing barriers to leaving their home to still develop community connections.
• Creating opportunities for people who have restricted mobility or experience barriers to leaving their home, to move their bodies more.
• Support for people to manage health conditions better or navigate a barrier that causes health inequalities.
• Work to address some of the underlying injustices and causes of health inequality, for example poverty, racism and discrimination.
• Peer support, particularly for people with multiple long-term conditions.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any Voluntary, Community or Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisation. This could include community groups, clubs, charities and other not-for-profits.
• They strongly encourage partnership working and collaborative proposals, though you must appoint a lead organisation on the application form.
• They cannot accept applications from statutory services.
• They can consider joint applications that are a partnership between a VCSE organisation and a statutory organisation. The VCSE organisation must be the lead partner.
• They’re encouraging community groups, clubs, charities and other not-for-profit organisations, including small groups and new organisations across York to apply to the fund.

Criteria

• Applications will be scored based on the extent to which they:
  • Respond to local need
    • Applications should evidence how their proposed project responds to local needs and priorities
  • Have been co-produced
    • Applications should evidence how they have involved people who will benefit from the project in the development of the proposals
  • Focus on early intervention and prevention
  • Are deliverable
    • Plans should be credible, realistic and achievable based on the nature and capacity of the organisation as well as the timescales, costs and outcomes outlined in the application
  • Demonstrate an understanding of how the short-term funding will be used as part of a wider plan to meet the longer-term needs of people who will benefit from the project
    • Proposals should demonstrate planning around what the next steps would be for the project’s beneficiaries following the end of their support or the end of the funding period
  • Benefit one or more of the priority groups
    • They are particularly keen to fund projects that work with people from the groups outlined below:
      • People with multiple long-term conditions
      • People experiencing barriers to leaving their home
      • Individuals with restricted mobility
      • People with learning difficulties
      • Adults with autism who do not have a learning difficulty
      • Parents who are struggling with loneliness, isolation, low mood, alcohol or drugs
      • Children, young people and adults affected by COVID or chronic illness
      • People experiencing multiple deprivation or health inequalities

For more information, visit Ways to Wellbeing.