Our national body Action with Communities in Rural England is looking for an experienced programme manager to join their small team who shares our passion for supporting rural communities to be thriving, sustainable and inclusive places to live and work.

This will be an exciting role for the right candidate, managing a new £2.5m programme of work funded by Defra until the end of March 2025 that aims to help rural communities secure small-scale, sensitively designed affordable housing schemes based on an assessment of local need.

The post holder will deploy strong stakeholder management and communication skills to support a network of Rural Housing Enablers across England; professionals attached to members of the ACRE Network who encourage communities to consider solutions for meeting affordable housing need locally, and broker relationships with planners, landowners, and developers to identify suitable sites for development.

An appreciation of the policy landscape affecting rural communities is essential, but we are particularly interested in candidates who also have some prior experience of working in the housing sector.

Whilst the role is based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, remote working for most of the week is now custom and practice for our staff team at ACRE. The post holder would be expected to be in the office alongside other members of the team for at least one day a week. Other benefits include a contributory pension scheme and a generous annual leave allowance.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and are happy to make reasonable adjustments for candidates during the recruitment process.

Further information is available in the Job Description and Person Specification.

To apply, please email a CV and covering letter (max 2 sides A4) stating your interest in the role and how you meet the person specification to s.kirkman@acre.org.uk by 12 noon 30 October.

If you would like to discuss this opportunity further please contact Paul Dixon on 01285 425624

The Learner Achievement Awards are now open for nominations!

These annual awards celebrate the success of adult learning in West Berkshire covering apprenticeships, professional, academic, and vocational courses and learning programmes that support families, communities and health and wellbeing.

Please note to qualify for an award the nominee must have been engaged in learning since September 2022, be aged over 19 years at the start of their course and live, work or volunteer in West Berkshire.

There are nine award categories, and each winner will receive a cash prize of at least £100 (£500 for groups). This year we are pleased to introduce the Numeracy Skills for Life Award (cash prize of £300), which is sponsored by the Multiply programme in recognition of the development of adult numeracy skills.

All award winners will be invited, with a guest, to the presentation ceremony at Shaw House, Newbury on Friday, 10 November at 5.30pm.

Organised by West Berkshire Council on behalf of the West Berkshire Community Learning Partnership, the awards are sponsored by Newbury College, West Berkshire Training Consortium, and the Newbury Community Resource Centre.

The deadline for all nominations is Friday, 27th October 2023 at 5pm.

For further information please contact the community learning team on 01635 519060 or email: aclteam@westberks.gov.uk

Please click here to make a nomination.

Crowdfunder Cost of Living Fund

The Crowdfunder Cost of Living Emergency Fund is supporting registered UK Charities, registered community benefit organisations and registered social enterprises and charity companies across the UK to tackle food poverty relating to the cost of living crisis.
• Be based in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and is for the benefit of communities within the UK.
• Have a UK mainland bank account in the name of the organisation.
• The outcome of this crowdfunding campaign will need be delivered by 31st December 2023.
• Be raising funds for running costs only (capital costs such as building refurbishment are not eligible).
• Have been operating for at least 12 months.
Be one of the following:
• Registered UK Charities
• Registered community benefit organisations
• Registered social enterprises and charity companies
The funding would be applicable for projects that are focused on helping to resolve cost of living issues around food poverty and food education.
Typical projects may include (but are not limited to):
• Supporting the creation or continuation of foodbanks
• Providing support to those helping to provide free meals for children during the summer holidays
• Providing food budgeting or food education support to those in financial difficulties
• Reducing food waste and therefore food costs through community fridge creation/continuation
All projects that meet the criteria set out above will be assessed to determine which will receive match funding. Project owners will be informed whether their application has been successful or not. We will focus on prioritising organisations which are new to crowdfunding as well as seeking to ensure funding is distributed equitably, particularly in terms of geographic location and types of beneficiaries. A range of projects will be selected to achieve this.
To receive match funding (once approved), the following conditions must all be met:
• For every donation made towards your project we’ll match it up to £250, so if your project receives a donation of £20 we’ll add another £20. If your project receives a donation of £600 then you’ll receive an additional £250.
• Only one donation per supporter will be matched (we will not provide match funding where a supporter is deemed to have made multiple donations).
• You can receive a maximum of £5,000 of match funding per organisation.
• Live match funding will stop when the Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund has been fully allocated or when the crowdfunding project closes (no match funding will be applied to forever funding/always on projects) – whichever is earliest.
More details: Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund | Crowdfunder UK
Deadline: The Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund will close when the funds are fully allocated.

BA Better World Community Fund

British Airways’ BA Better World Community Fund provides match funding to crowdfunded projects by UK registered charities and social enterprises. The Fund matches every individual donation received (on donations up to £250) with the maximum value of extra funding your project could receive being £15,000.
Projects must do one or more of the following:
• Deliver support in areas experiencing social and economic deprivation, including rural communities
• Work with one or more of the following groups as a main focus:
o lower socio-economic groups
o culturally diverse communities
o disadvantaged females exploring STEM opportunities
o individuals struggling with mental health and wellbeing
o groups exploring or providing solutions for Climate Change
Priority will be given to:
• Projects providing training and skills to help disadvantaged groups access employment and education
• Projects creating opportunities for people in underrepresented groups particularly focused on improving gender and ethnic diversity and accessibility for people with disabilities
• Innovative projects tackling environmental and climate challenges with sustainable long term outcomes
All projects must have received donations from at least 25 different individual supporters to qualify.
More details – British Airways (bacommunityfund.co.uk)
Deadline: Rolling

The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund

Our main priority is to fund organisations supporting low-income households and individuals. You can apply for between £10,000 and £75,000.
To apply your organisation must already run critical services around at least one of the following:
• food and emergency supplies – like food and baby banks or the provision of hot meals, clothes or toiletries
• emergency shelter – like night shelters or other accommodation for people experiencing homelessness
• safe spaces – like domestic abuse services and youth services
• warmth – like warm rooms and spaces
• financial and housing advice – like giving people advice because of the increased cost of living.
Your organisation must also be facing both
• increased demand for these critical services
and
• increased costs of delivering these critical services
We’re more likely to fund small and medium-sized front-line organisations
With an annual turnover of between £10,000 and around £1 million.
Larger organisations can also apply if they do both of the following:
• show that they work closely and effectively with local communities
• fill a gap in essential local services.
You can get funding to pay for:
• costs of delivering, expanding or adapting your existing critical service(s) from the date you are funded until 31 March 2024. The date you are funded will be around 12 weeks from the time you submitted your application.
• retrospective costs of running the existing critical service(s) you’re applying for between 24 July 2023 and the date you are funded.
To find out more read the section What you can spend the money on.
We want to support a range of critical services that reach as many local communities and groups of people as possible. This will be one of the things we think about when deciding which applications to fund.
We’ll start funding organisations in October 2023, and finish in January 2024. If you get funding you must spend it by 31 March 2024.
The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund | The National Lottery Community Fund (tnlcommunityfund.org.uk)
Deadline: The deadline for applications is 16 October 2023 at 12 noon

Thames Valley Community Fund

Community groups invited to apply for grant funding from £200,000 fund to help prevent crime
Organisations from across the Thames Valley can apply for grants for projects that support one of the PCC’s ‘Police and Criminal Justice Plan’ priorities:

• Strong Local Policing (preventing crime & protecting communities)
• Fighting Serious Organised Crime (protecting vulnerable people)
• Fighting Fraud & Cybercrime (fighting modern crimes)
• Improving the Criminal Justice System (reducing re-offending)
• Tackling illegal encampments (reducing the impact of encampments) Application deadline: 2nd November 2023

Further details are available here.

W G Edwards Charitable Foundation

The W G Edwards Charitable Foundation is an independent grant-making charity, which assists with the provision of care and aims to improve the wellbeing of older people in the UK. The Foundation gives grants to capital projects, refurbishment and for equipment, in addition to innovative schemes for ongoing care and projects which help people live active and fulfilling lives.

The Foundation award funds to UK charities which have, for at least two years, been registered with the:

Charity Commission for England and Wales
Regulator for Charities in Northern Ireland
Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

Eligibility

You may apply to The W G Edwards Charitable Foundation if your charity fulfills the following criteria:

The charity is based in the UK
The charity is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, or the Regulator for Charities in Northern Ireland
The aim of your charity is to help people over the age of 65
You are applying for assistance towards a capital project such as refurbishment, furniture or equipment
You are applying for assistance towards an innovative project such as IT for the elderly, fitness classes, lunch clubs, gardening projects, etc.

The Royal Countryside Fund – Supporting Rural Communities Programme

Grants are available to constituted not-for-profit and community-led organisations operating in remote rural areas for projects that improve the lives of those living in rural communities in the UK.

Application deadline: 20 October 2023

More information

Magic Little Grants Fund

Small one-off grants are available to small local charities and community groups for community projects in Great Britain that address themes set out by the funders.
Application deadline: 31 October 2023. More details here.

Awards for All changes

On 15 November 2023 National Lottery Awards for All is changing. From then, you’ll be able to:

• apply for up to £20,000
• get your project funded for up to two years.

You can still only hold one National Lottery Awards for All grant at a time. This means if you apply for up to £10,000 before 15 November you would not be able to apply for more funding until your project is complete. You will not be able to ask for top-ups.
If you would like to ask for more than £10,000 and less than £20,000 then you should wait until 15 November to apply. The time it takes to assess and pay successful applicants is still 16 weeks.

Find out more about the Awards for All changes

Climate Action Fund

About Us: A major scheme through the National Lottery Community Fund to either encourage communities to use energy in an environmentally friendly way, help communities to promote energy efficiency or enable communities to engage with opportunities to generate clean energy.
Criteria: Applications will be accepted from groups such as registered charities, community organisation, not-for-profit companies and schools/colleges/universities.
Grant Size: £500,000 – £1.5m
Deadline for applications: December 2023

Find out more about the Climate Action Fund

Screwfix Foundation

About Us: We are passionate about making a difference to communities across the UK. We are
a grant giving charity with a clear purpose to support projects that improve, repair and maintain homes and community facilities used by those in need throughout the UK.
Criteria: We currently offer local registered charities and not for profit organisations funding.
Grant Size: up to £5,000
Deadline for applications: Rolling

Find out more about Screwfix Foundation

National Garden Scheme – Community Gardens Grants

Grants are available to amateur gardeners from community groups in England and Wales to create a garden or similar project with horticultural focus for the benefit of their local community.
The next application round (funding in 2024) is expected to open for applications on 2 October 2023. Find out more here:
Application deadline: 13 November 2023.

Wokingham Borough Council: Community Diversity Grants

Any new or small community voluntary organisation can now apply for a maximum grant of £500 to help with things like:
developing a new organisation holding events increasing employment opportunities of protected characteristic communities in the borough. Click here for more information.
Application deadline: 12 October 2023

Save Our Wild Isles Community Fund (with Crowdfunding)

Grants are available for not-for-profit organisations in the UK who can raise their initial funding through a crowdfunding campaign for projects that protect and restore nature in their local communities. For further details click here.
Application deadline: N/A

Crowdfunder Cost of Living Fund

The Crowdfunder Cost of Living Emergency Fund is supporting registered UK Charities, registered community benefit organisations and registered social enterprises and charity companies across the UK to tackle food poverty relating to the cost of living crisis.
• Be based in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and is for the benefit of communities within the UK.
• Have a UK mainland bank account in the name of the organisation.
• The outcome of this crowdfunding campaign will need be delivered by 31st December 2023.
• Be raising funds for running costs only (capital costs such as building refurbishment are not eligible).
• Have been operating for at least 12 months.
Be one of the following:
• Registered UK Charities
• Registered community benefit organisations
• Registered social enterprises and charity companies
The funding would be applicable for projects that are focused on helping to resolve cost of living issues around food poverty and food education.
Typical projects may include (but are not limited to):
• Supporting the creation or continuation of foodbanks
• Providing support to those helping to provide free meals for children during the summer holidays
• Providing food budgeting or food education support to those in financial difficulties
• Reducing food waste and therefore food costs through community fridge creation/continuation
All projects that meet the criteria set out above will be assessed to determine which will receive match funding. Project owners will be informed whether their application has been successful or not. We will focus on prioritising organisations which are new to crowdfunding as well as seeking to ensure funding is distributed equitably, particularly in terms of geographic location and types of beneficiaries. A range of projects will be selected to achieve this.
To receive match funding (once approved), the following conditions must all be met:
• For every donation made towards your project we’ll match it up to £250, so if your project receives a donation of £20 we’ll add another £20. If your project receives a donation of £600 then you’ll receive an additional £250.
• Only one donation per supporter will be matched (we will not provide match funding where a supporter is deemed to have made multiple donations).
• You can receive a maximum of £5,000 of match funding per organisation.
• Live match funding will stop when the Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund has been fully allocated or when the crowdfunding project closes (no match funding will be applied to forever funding/always on projects) – whichever is earliest.
Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund | Crowdfunder UK
Deadline: The Crowdfunder Cost of Living Crisis Emergency Fund will close when the funds are fully allocated.

Ocado Foundation for Good

The Ocado Foundation is the charitable arm of Ocado Group, working for good in the community. We focus our efforts in three core areas, skills for the future, natural resources and responsible sourcing.
We like to support the many rather than the few, welcoming opportunities from charities, CICs and community projects.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, for volunteering, we are currently only accepting applications for digital volunteering.
Programme Objectives
• Skills for the Future: Improve Basic Life Skills
• Skills for the Future: Improve Skills for Future Learning
• Natural Resources: Reduce our Impact on the Planet
• Responsible Sourcing: Support Ethical Products & Supply Chains
BizGive

Asda Foundation Cost-Of-Living Funding

Applications close on Friday 3rd November.
We support small, grass roots organisations in several ways throughout the year. Working with Asda’s Community Champions in store, we are able to work with a range of organisations and groups on a variety of local community projects. Below are the different ways we support communities. Cost of Living is a grant for local groups aimed at supporting the increased running costs group are facing as a result of the crisis. Read the guidance here and if your group and project meet the criteria, talk to your local Asda Community Champion about applying

Deadline: 31/12/2023

Electrical Safety Fund

About Us: We are committed to helping those who are most vulnerable to electrical risk and injury in their homes. These risks are increasing due to the cost-of-living crisis, rocketing inflation, and rising energy prices.
Criteria: Fire and rescue services, trading standards authorities, community safety organisations, schools or other educational institutions, not-for-profit organisations. Your application must have a focus on helping to keep people electrically safe and be related to ensuring the safety of electrical products in the home.
Grant Size: up to £5,000
Deadline for applications: 22 October 2023

Find out more about the Electrical Safety Fund

Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund

About Us: The Department of Health and Social Care is offering funding for community organisations across England to buy an automated external defibrillators (AED) to install in a public place.
Criteria:
The funding will be allocated as follows:
• 100 applications will be selected by DHSC to receive a fully funded AED – selection is based on areas that are most in need of AED throughout England. Applicants will be advised in mid October and units shipped in mid November.
• 1,900 applications will receive partial DHSC funding for an AED – organisations will be required to provide their own match funding of c.£750.
Grant Size: Some organisations will receive match funding of c. £750.
Deadline for applications: The funding for the scheme is based on a ‘first come first served basis’.23.59 on 21 September 2024 or until all the funding has been allocated.

Find out more about the Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund

Thank you to Volunteer Centre West Berkshire, Wokingham & Bracknell InVOLve and Slough CVS for the information contained in this email.

Rural community organisations are being invited to apply for grants of up to £25,000 in the autumn round of our Supporting Rural Communities programme.

The Erne East Community Partnership were awarded £12,500.

Maddy Taylor, Head of Operations at The Royal Countryside Fund said: “We are really keen to hear from people whose community projects are responding to specific needs in their village or town, to tackle problems such as isolation, lack of access to services, training, or employment, or that are improving the sustainability and resilience of countryside communities.

“We want to hear how your project is responding to demand from people in your area, and how it will make a real difference to improve the lives of people living in your local community.”

The Royal Countryside Fund has up to £250,000 available for not-for-profit rural organisations in this funding round, and is looking to fund projects in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. Groups who are interested in applying should read the FAQs and advice documents on The Royal Countryside Fund’s website and then fill in a short application form before midday on Friday, 20th October 2023.

More info: https://www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk/news/we-are-open-for-rural-grant-applications/

As we enter our 50th year as a charity our Chief Exec Tim Parry takes a look back and all the changes he has seen in the last 21 years of his career.

If CCB were a marriage, 2023 would be its golden wedding anniversary. Reflecting on this milestone leads me to consider my own personal milestone relating to CCB: I joined the charity 21 years ago. I can barely remember being that young man in his early thirties, still pondering the question of what he wanted to be when he grew up.

The passage of time leaves me thinking that 2002 was, perhaps appropriately, a golden age for the charity. The Countryside Agency was in its infancy and was busy investing heavily in rural communities, tasked with improving the quality of the rural environment and the lives of those that lived there. Funding was available to Rural Community Councils like CCB to support rural transport, advice to village shops, consultation projects such as parish plans and village design statements to name but a few.

CCB was already supporting a wide range of projects such as friendship clubs, support for town and parish councils and village halls advice as these new opportunities came our way. We took on research projects including landscape character assessments, created community orchards and established a new rural housing partnership: a project that ran for 10 years and led to over 40 affordable homes being built for local people. Investment from the Government Office of the South East (GOSE) and SEEDA the local Economic Development Agency in various themes not least education and Information, advice & Guidance saw the CCB team grow from 7 to 25 in a relatively short period of time.

The financial crisis in 2008 and the ensuing change of Government in 2010 led to a significant change in fortunes for CCB. The bonfire of the quangos and the rapid decisions made by Government cutting funding from Local Area Agreements and many other social programmes meant that charities like CCB lost great swathes of their funding.

The CCB Board of Trustees had seen change coming, and had bravely decided to invest reserves into a programme of diversification, developing new products and services to sustain income streams. In spite of some early successes, public sector funding cuts saw the market for many of our new ideas dry up. Promised partnerships in support of new initiatives such as DWP investments in job readiness did not materialise.

As projects came to an end and staff moved on to other things, the CCB team shrunk from three teams to a single team of 7. Being the only remaining manager left in the charity, 2012 saw me take on the role of Chief Officer.

The last 10 years or so have been a challenge. However, the energy and dedication of a small but perfectly-formed team of staff and Trustees has brought about a slow but determined transformation in CCB’s fortunes. We have weathered the lean years and are busy securing our renaissance with new investment from the National Lottery Community Fund and a series of new projects in development.

That young man in his early thirties probably wouldn’t have arrived at Charity CEO as a likely answer to his question, but I’m both grateful and fortunate that that’s how things turned out.