Moving Communities Webinar: Skills for Setting up Physical Activity Sessions

An exciting new training webinar just announced in partnership with the fantastic peeps at Get Berkshire Active.

This free, online workshop looks to help individuals and groups in Berkshire organise and deliver community-based projects designed to encourage others to be more active. Maybe you’d like to set up a new activity for your local area and are wondering how to go about it? Do you recognise a gap for certain activities in your community and you’d like to help fill it? Perhaps you ran your classes pre lockdowns but would like a refresher on how you can set up and run your sessions again safely in your community-building/hall? This course is for you!

Please share far and wide and click on the event to learn more and make sure you book your free place today.

Thanks go to West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning teams for supporting this training event.


Safeguarding Village Halls

Our project to help village halls and community buildings ensure that best practice takes place in these venues continues with our national body Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) at the helm.

Advice and examples of best practices can be found on our website by clicking here. If you have any safeguarding in village halls-related questions please get in touch with us at Kate.Meads@ccberks.org.uk.

So far Kate has already run two in-depth and well attended training webinars on the subject and has received some positive feedback; “An excellent introduction to Safeguarding for Village Hall committees. We have more or less ignored the subject in the past because, wherever you look up about it, it’s always seemed so huge and daunting, especially for a small hall with just a few volunteers running it. To understand that it’s actually going to be straightforward to do is most reassuring. We look forward to the resources you are developing that we will be able to use to create our own policy and procedure in due course. Thank you.”

Again if you have any training requirements in this area please do get in touch.


A Walk from Every Hall

We are working with the West Berkshire Walking for Health team to promote the many benefits of joining in with a local walking group. Twelve groups operate under the West Berkshire Walking for Health umbrella, details of which can be found on the Walking for Health website here: https://www.walkingforhealth.org.uk/walkfinder/walking-for-health-west-berks

People join in with these walks for many reasons, from getting a little exercise to discovering new places and making new friends. Walks take place every week and a timetable can be downloaded from the website.

Health and Wellbeing is more important than ever, as the summer weather finally makes an appearance and the restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic begin to ease. Our summer campaign A Walk From Every Hall aims to promote these walks and to encourage the creation of new walks in other places. We would love to see new walks established, starting from village halls and other community venues, taking in local sites and offering refreshments at local shops or back at the village hall.

In July CCB will be facilitating an online workshop, hearing from walk leaders about why they got involved with walking for health, and learning from Paul Graham, West Berkshire Council’s Walking for Health Coordinator, about what’s involved in setting up a new walk. Volunteering as a walk leader or joining in with a walk is a great way of meeting people and learning more about West Berkshire’s beautiful countryside, as well as a great way of getting some gentle exercise. If you’d like to learn how easy and rewarding getting involved with a walking group can be, please keep an eye out for the date for this fun and informative workshop or register your interest with gemma.pearce@ccberks.org.uk.


Get Involved With The Month of Community

Good causes across the UK are teaming up next month to celebrate summer 2021 with a whole #MonthOfCommunity. This year, the Big Lunch will kick off a summer event, all about of community, friendship and fun, with a truly unforgettable feast! This event is about celebrating community connections and getting to know one another a little better. You can join in with a Big Lunch when it works for you and your community, whether that’s to say cheers to volunteers, connect with your neighbours or simply to say thank you. Pick your own big date to celebrate and hold a Big Lunch when it works best for you and coincides with the awareness week that you connect to best:


Great British Spring Clean: 28th May – 13th June
Volunteers Week: 1st-7th June
Neighbourhood Watch Week
: 5th-11th June
Carers Week: 7th-13th June
Loneliness Awareness Week: 14th-18th June
Refugee Week: 14th-20th June
Small Charity Week: 14th-19th June
The Great Get Together: 18th-20th June
National Picnic Week: 19th-27th June
National Cream Tea Day: 25th June
Thank You Day: 4th July


Click on the links above to find out more about each of these important awareness events and let everyone know how you’re getting involved and making a difference by sharing your celebrations on social media using the hashtag #MonthofCommunity and #BFGetInvolved!


Funding Opportunities in June

Small Grants for Small Charities
The Foyle Small Grants Scheme is designed to support UK charities which are financially stable and which are working at grass roots and local community level, in any field, across a wide range of activities. We make one-year grants only to cover core costs or essential equipment, to enable ongoing service provision, homeworking, or delivery of online digital services to charities that can show financial stability. Small charities with turnover of less than £150,000 can apply for between £1,000 and £10,000. For further details, click here.

Grants For Small Local & Grass Roots Groups
‘Charity Pot’ is funded by Lush hand and body cream support and distribute as grants, to mainly small grass roots groups working in the areas of animal protection, the environment and/or human rights (including social justice, peace, diversity and equality). Charity Pot grants range from £100 to £10,000 per project/application.  The average Charity Pot grant is between £2,000 – £4,000. Priorities include projects that aim to create long-term change, or support for basic life needs and, or that are often overlooked by other funders. 
Lush supports organisations that take on issues that others don’t or that push the boundaries and challenge the mainstream opinion. Click here for more info.

Co-op Local Community Fund
If your project helps people access food, improves mental wellbeing or provides opportunities for young people, apply
for funding and become a co-op cause. As well as providing some funds, the scheme can help you:
~   find people who can help grow your group
~   tell others about the impact you’re having in your community
~   connect with other groups and activities to grow your network
You can use the money to pay staff salaries or running costs for your project, but not your group. For example, to pay a professional to give local children mental health awareness training. For more information and for the application form, click here

Grants For Horticultural & Art History Projects
The Finnis Scott Foundation makes grants for horticultural and art history projects. In general, the Trustees only consider applications for grants up to £10,000. Exceptionally, larger
grants may be considered at the Trustees’ discretion. Preference is given to smaller charities where a grant would have a significant impact. The Foundation funds both capital and revenue projects. Requests for salaries will not be considered, except in the case of educational support (bursaries and apprenticeships). Grants are not given for expenditure which has already been made. Click here for more details.

People’s Health Trust

Their Active Communities programme is open locally. Not for profit organisations with an annual income below £350,000 can a apply for a grant of £5,000 to £40,000, which can be over two years.

Projects need to:

  • Be designed and led by local people
  • Support their neighbourhood or community to come together to address an issue that is important to them
  • Create stronger connections between people by supporting them to meet up regularly (weekly, fortnightly or monthly, for at least one year)
  • Be for people who experience greater social and economic disadvantage than people living in other parts of the country

They will support small local projects, or those supporting a community of interest. Deadline for applications is 1pm on 9 June 2021

Read more

The Wakeham Trust

The Wakeham Trust provides grants to help people rebuild their communities. They are particularly interested in neighbourhood projects, community arts projects, projects involving community service by young people, or projects set up by those who are socially excluded.Read more

Grocers’ Charity – Memorial Grants
Deadline: N/A
One-off grants are available to small UK registered charities for work in the specific areas of: relief of youth poverty, the disabled, the elderly, health, military, and the arts and heritage.

Music for All – Community Project Funding
Deadline: 1 July 2021
Grants are available to UK-based community groups that aim to bring musical projects to their local communities.

The Prince’s Countryside Fund – Barclays 100x100UK
Covid-19 Community Relief Fund

Deadline: N/A
Funding for farming and rural communities to cope with the impact of Covid-19, to expand on new services that have emerged to support the local community during this time and to build future resilience.

Matthew Good Foundation – Grants for Good Fund
Deadline: N/A
Grants are available for local community groups, charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises in the UK for projects that have a positive impact on communities, people, or the environment.

Postcode Society Trust – South of England
Deadline: N/A
Grants are available for smaller charities and good causes in the south of England.

Ansvar

We’re asking registered charities – big or small – to tell us about a project they’re either running or hoping to run, which could do with some extra cash. We have £25,000 to give away – the first prize will be £15,000 and the two runners up will both receive £5,000 each. All we’re asking for is 500 words or less about the project, which can be emailed to us at community.campaign@ansvar.co.uk  Entries need to be in by the 30th June and we’ll be letting the lucky winners know they’ve been successful by the 23rd July. Click here for the terms and conditions.

Return to Play: Small Grants

This fund will make awards, using National Lottery and government funding, of between £300 and £10,000 from a total pot of £15 million, to help sport and activity groups, clubs and organisations respond to the immediate challenges of returning to play in a coronavirus-safe way. It seeks to help support sport and physical activity groups, clubs and organisations in responding to the immediate challenges of returning to play in a Covid-safe manner. For more details please click here.

Ocado Foundation Grants Programme

Grants programme for UK charities and community groups, with BizGive offering grants of up to £1,000 to successful applicants, with in-kind goods also available on request and applications for digital volunteering also accepted. For further details please click here.

Funding for Allotment and Garden Projects
Deadline: 1 July 2021
The National Allotment Gardens Trust grant funding to registered Allotment Associations and Committees for the improvement and development of facilities on registered and permanent sites. Non statuary sites may also be granted funding if a long term lease is in place.

Pets at Home Foundation – Pets Through People Grants
Deadline: N/A
Grants are available for charities who provide temporary or ongoing assistance to ensure pets can remain with their owners, and/or change the lives of adults and children through the provision of animal-based activities.

National Lottery Awards for All – England
Deadline: N/A
Grants are available for charities, voluntary groups, schools and local authorities in England to carry out projects that will improve their local community

National Lottery Community Fund – Partnerships
Deadline: N/A
Grants are available to voluntary and community organisations in England which work together with a shared set of goals and values to help their community thrive.

National Lottery Community Fund – Reaching Communities
Deadline: N/A
Large grants are available to voluntary and community organisations in England for projects that make positive changes in their communities.

National Lottery Grants for Heritage
Deadline: N/A
Grants for organisations working with heritage to adapt and respond to the changing environment they are now operating in due to the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis.

Emergency Government funding for the Coronavirus Community Support Fund

Government funding is being awarded alongside National Lottery funding, to support organisations to continue to deliver services to people and communities affected by COVID-19. We can also help organisations overcome any acute financial difficulties they face as a result of the pandemic. Those unable to accept lottery funding can specify the application is for Government funds. Read about the types of projects and organisations we’re prioritising

Funding of between £300 and £10,000 is being awarded to cover six months of expenditure.  Applications are ongoing though eligibility will change after 17th August. See https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/covid-19-funding-under-10k-1#section-1 

Core funding charities supporting for disadvantaged groups 
Charities, social enterprises, and community interest companies can apply for core cost funding of up to £3,000. Priority is given to projects that make good use of volunteers, encourage past and current users to participate, ensure that funds awarded are being well used and fall within the following areas:

  • Children and young people who are isolated, at risk of exclusion or involved in anti-social behaviour.
  • Disadvantaged families,
  • Prisoners and ex-offenders. 

See http://woodwardcharitabletrust.org.uk/general_applications/ for details.  Apply by 30th July 2021

Thank you to Berkshire’s terrific CVS’s for the information contained in the post, namely – Wokingham & Bracknell InVOLve, Reading Voluntary Action, Slough CVS and Volunteer Centre West Berkshire.