Background

The Community Hubs Grant Scheme is provided and administered by Migrant Help.

Founded in 1963, Migrant Help is a registered charity that supports asylum seekers, refugees, victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, and others affected by displacement and exploitation.

Objectives of Fund

The funding aims to support new and existing community hubs and drop-in services that increases support and access to local services for asylum seekers and refugees through:

Supporting third sector organisations delivering non contracted services to asylum seekers and refugees.
Encouraging community integration.
Supporting the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers and refugees.
Welcoming asylum seekers and refugees into communities around the UK .
Providing support to organisations and projects which may struggle to find support elsewhere.

Two grants are available:

Small bridging grants of up to £2,000
- To help with things like short-term running costs whilst seeking further funding or to provide essential needs that cannot be met elsewhere. This may include essentials like covering unexpected increases in bills / venue hire, activity costs, material items or for costs of training and advertising.
Sustainability and start up grants of up to £5,000
- To help start a new hub in an area of high need or to invest in an existing hub, creating sustainability, such as equipment, training for staff and volunteers, support in advertising opportunities or identifying partners, hosting launch days and community events etc.

Who Can Apply

Applications will be accepted from:

Registered organisations managing existing hubs.
Constituted groups.
Charities.
Faith groups.
Community Interest Companies (CICs)
Not for profit organisations.
Partnerships of not-for-profit organisations.

Priority will be given to individuals and organisations who have not previously received funding from Migrant Help.

To be eligible, applicants must:

Have a bank account in the organisation's name.
Have adequate insurance in place to deliver the service or project as well as relevant safeguarding procedures.

Restrictions

The following are not eligible for funding:

Public sector organisations, such as the NHS, Police, Local Authority etc.
Private sector organisations.
Organisations currently in receipt of a community hub grant from Migrant Help.
Organisations with a greater annual turnover than £5 million.
Work that has already been carried out (retrospective funding).
Activities and services that do not predominantly benefit asylum seekers, migrants, refugees, survivors of trafficking and modern slavery.
Projects or services that should be statutory duty, ie, covered under mainstream government funding.
Projects that promote political or religious beliefs.

Eligible Expenditure

The funding can be used for:

Capital costs, such as equipment, furniture and materials, etc.
Revenue costs, such as staff wages, venue hire costs.

There are no deadlines for applications; however, when the maximum funding available for each year has been distributed, the applications will close until the following round in the next year. The year runs from 1 April to 31 March the following calendar year.

Applications can be submitted at any time and will be assessed on a bi-monthly basis with deadlines to submit applications for each round.

There will be five funding rounds with the following application windows: