Small Grants Scheme 2023 - Grants opening 11th May!!

Live Here Love Here Small Grants are funded by 10 Local Councils, Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful. The Small Grants Scheme provides support to volunteer projects that:

• Contribute to the development of civic pride within a community with a focus on environmental improvement.

• Encourage actions and projects that enable Pollution Solutions, Biodiversity Recovery and Climate Action.

• Enhance the environmental management of a local area.

• Improve the health and wellbeing of communities whilst helping to improve and/or maintain public spaces.

• Improve the quality of their local environment by reducing littering and dog fouling through community Action.

• Support environmentally focused actions that help support people impacted through reduced contact with society.

Value of Grants

Grants are available between £500 - £3000. The average value of grants awarded is £1200.

Non-constituted groups can apply for a maximum of £500.

Eligibility

The Small Grants Scheme is open to:

• Community & Voluntary groups (including non-constituted groups)

• Sports clubs, churches and youth groups

• Not for profit organisations

• School and third level education organisations

Applications are particularly welcome from grassroots groups who have not previously received support through the Live Here Love Here Small Grants Scheme.

Funding is only available in the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area to projects located in Northern Ireland Housing Executive areas.

What type of projects will the Small Grant Scheme fund?

• Development of shared spaces such as alleys.

• Community food growing initiatives.

• Skill sharing in horticulture and community growing.

• Projects that tackle litter issues and dog fouling.

Litter picking equipment is not eligible for funding through this grant - please check out the Adopt A Spot project.

Need some inspiration?

Check out the documents below, they are packed with hints and tips to help with your application.

Biodiversity Recovery Project Advice
Pollution Solutions Project Advice
Tackling Textiles Project Advice

Please visit Small Grants Scheme delivered by Live Here Love Here

Expressions of Interest for 2023-25

The Irish Football Association (Irish FA) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) Multi-Sports Grassroots Facilities Investment Fund aims to allow local grassroots football clubs in Northern Ireland (NI) to improve and upgrade facilities to create a better grassroots football infrastructure foundation. 

Investment in creating the best possible multi-sports and grassroots football facilities enables young people to have the opportunity to reach their full potential in football, as well as providing the local community with access to facilities where they can participate in other sports and become healthy and active. 

The UK Government has confirmed the allocation of a £230 million uplift to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for investment in football facilities across the UK. Read more on this here.

DCMS has committed to supporting grassroots football facility development in Northern Ireland up to March 2025. Phase 3 of the investment covers the financial year, April 2023 to March 2024 with Phase 4 covering April 2024 to March 2025. 

Two million pounds of capital funding has been secured for 2023/24, with a further £3.59 million of capital funding to be delivered in 2024/25.  Projects to be supported will be selected for their ability to deliver improved facilities in deprived areas, support multi-sport use and increase participation among currently underrepresented groups, including women, girls and those with a disability. 

The Irish FA / DCMS Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Investment Fund 2023-25 will be directed towards larger capital projects primarily focusing on the installation and improvement of natural grass or certified artificial grass pitches (AGP).  Funding will support and be directed towards the installation of new or replacement natural grass surfaces, new or replacement artificial grass surfaces or new multi-use games areas (MUGA).

Associated pitch infrastructure will be considered for funding in addition to the pitch installation e.g. changing rooms, floodlighting, fencing etc.

In order to understand the number, type and scale of projects which may come forward over the next two financial years, we are running an Expression of Interest (EOI) process. The EOI will gather crucial information on proposed projects at early stages of their development, identifying future investment possibilities.  It is anticipated that applications for funding will be opened in February / March 2023. 

EOIs will be open for over two weeks from Wednesday 18 January 2023 and will close at 12 noon on Friday 3 February 2023.   The EOI can be accessed via the link below.

A full list of the questions on the Expression of Interest form can be found in the PDF download below.

CLICK HERE FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM

Irish FA/ DCMS Grassroots Facilities Investment Fund...

2023/24 Central Good Relations Fund now open for online applications

The 2023/24 Central Good Relations Fund (CGRF) is now open for groups who wish to apply online for a project funding grant (for projects over £1,500).

Applications must be submitted online by:

Thursday 12 January 2023 at 6:00pm

To access the online application portal, you must first register your organisation. However, if you have previously registered, you do not need to register again. Please follow the link below and enter your username and password in the ‘Local Account Login’ section to log in to the application portal.

Already Registered? Login to apply for a 2023/24 CGRF grant

If you have not already registered, please use the link below to register your organisation. Please note, you must register your organisation by 12:00 noon on Wednesday 11 January 2023 to enable access to the online application portal. Any registrations submitted after that time will not be accepted.

Register to be able to apply for a 2023/24 CGRF grant

You should read the 2023/24 CGRF Guidance notes found here Central Good Relations Fund | The Executive Office (executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk) which include a step-by-step guide to registration and a step-by-step guide to the application form before you start.

Register

To register (if you have not already done so), you will need:

• Your contact information;

• Details of your organisation, including address and organisation type; and

• A copy of your organisation’s constitution (WORD or PDF).

Online Application

To apply online you will need:

• Your online sign in details (username and password);

• Details of your proposed project including proposed activities and costings; and

• Copies of job descriptions, if applicable (for any salary(s) being claimed).

Got questions?

Contact our team using the e-mail below:

• GoodRelationsFund@executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk

Community Solutions to Housing and Homelessness

The programme supports the development, testing, and delivery of new ideas and collaborations. Addressing the root causes of housing issues and homelessness, by working with a range of organisations and giving voice to individuals with lived experience across Northern Ireland.

Expressions of interest are now open! We also have a number of online information workshops so you can find out more about the programme and ask your questions. Sign up here. 

Expected outcomes:

• New collaborations emerge amongst organisations working on housing issues and homelessness

• New solutions to specific challenges within housing and homelessness are developed and tested, placing the insights and voices of people with lived experience at the centre

• New opportunities to influence decision making and public services relating to housing and homelessness

• Enhanced knowledge and skills in creative problem solving for participating individuals and organisations

For more information please visit Community Solutions to Housing and Homelessness - Community Foundation Northern Ireland (communityfoundationni.org)

Building the Community-Pharmacy Partnership Programme

The Building the Community-Pharmacy Partnership (BCPP) Programme is led by CDHN and funded by the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB), with strategic direction provided by a multi-agency Steering Group. BCPP supports communities and community pharmacists to work in partnership to address locally defined needs so that people make connections, listen to and understand each other better and work together to address the social determinants of health and health inequalities.

We recognise that health is impacted by much more than the everyday lifestyle decisions that we make, important as they are. Research shows that social isolation can be as damaging for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. With this in mind, our projects aim to address these wider issues and tackle the root causes of poor health. These vary greatly for different groups of people and may include mental health issues, housing issues, low educational attainment, poverty or debt. Group work and relationship building is at the core of all our projects. By sharing our assets, our lived experiences and supporting each other we can achieve great things.

For information on the Programme or for some support with your application, please contact a member of the BCPP team on 028 3026 4606 or visit Building the Community-Pharmacy Partnership Programme | Community Development and Health Network (cdhn.org)

Closing dates - Level 2 - 17/11/22

The Ann McGeeney Fund

The fund is open to organisations with charitable purposes only.

Funding will be available to local community organisations that are planned and run for the benefit of refugees and asylum seeker communities in Northern Ireland to support integration into society.

The Fund welcomes applications from community and voluntary groups that address the following areas:

• Integration of ethnic minorities into communities with special emphasis on women within these communities

• Initiatives can include providing support to host communities in building social connections with arriving refugee families and refugees already residing within the areas above.

• And/or providing activities to arriving families and refugees already residing within the areas above, helping them build social bridges with the host community.

The fund will prioritise refugees and asylum seekers from Syria and/or Ukraine

Community organisations involved

It is envisaged the organisations will be ‘host community’ organisations i.e. predominantly run or attended by long term UK residents. It is also possible for organisations to be ‘refugee community’ organisations with an aim to include ‘host communities’ in their activities.

The funding will help those organisations support long-term integration, develop opportunities to contribute to community by reducing barriers and creating social connections.

What we will fund

Funded activities will:

• Be open to, and of interest to, reunited refugee families and refugees residing in Northern Ireland

• Community activities such as those listed below will be funded (for guidance only):

  • Joint activity workshops leading to a co-designed event

  • Family cooking sessions

  • Parent and child groups

  • Sports (including women only)

  • Arts and performing arts

  • Music

  • Hobby classes

  • Women’s wellbeing groups.

Grants will be available ranging from £1,000 to £2,000 for projects taking place within a 12 month period

This round of funding will close at 1pm on Monday 17 October 2022.

For more information and to apply, please visit The Ann McGeeney Fund - Community Foundation Northern Ireland (communityfoundationni.org)

DAERA Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme 2022 (DRMCG 2022)

This Scheme is funded under the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Tackling Rural Poverty and Social Isolation Programme.

To apply for the scheme you must register using the following link: https://daera.outsystemsenterprise.com/RMCGS/StartPage

After registration you will be able to complete and submit your application and have access to the grant Guidance notes.

Micro Capital grants of between £200 and £1,500 are available to rural community-led, voluntary organisations for projects tackling issues of local poverty and / or social isolation. The total project cost must not exceed £3,000.

Projects must clearly address an issue of rural poverty and / or social isolation and applicants must provide a minimum of 15% match funding. The Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme 2022 has been designed to:

• Help rural community-led, voluntary groups to address local issues of access poverty, financial poverty and social isolation; and

• Improve the lives of rural communities, and in particular the wellbeing of isolated individuals.

Projects must focus on one of the following 4 themes:

• Modernisation (of premises / assets)

• Information Communication Technology (ICT)

• Health and Well-being

• Energy Efficiency / Environmental Improvement

Applications CLOSE 12noon Friday 30 Sept 2022.

In Mid Ulster District Council Area Contact COSTA or CWSAN for information or assistance.

Loraine in COSTA Tel: 028 855 56880 email info.costa@btconnect.com

Marguerite in CWSAN Tel: 028 877 38845 email: microgrants@cwsan.org

CWSAN & COSTA Pre-Application Workshops:

Tuesday 6th Sept 2022 @ 10:00am via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7379331902

Thursday 8th Sept 2022 @ 7:00pm via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7379331902

Wednesday 14th Sept 2022 @ 10:00am via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7379331902

Thursday 15th Sept 2022 @ 7:00pm via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7379331902

The Santander Foundation Grants Programme

We’ve developed the Financial & Digital Empowerment Fund to help more people in the UK become digitally and financially empowered.

We want to support UK charities to give people the digital confidence, knowledge, and skills to enable then to make better, more informed decisions about money and have access to financial services. Together we can make a positive impact in our communities.

If you’re part of a charitable organisation that shares our ambition, then you’re in the right place. Together, let's make a difference.

There are millions of people in our society that are already at a disadvantage – through age, education, income, disability, or unemployment. Without the right support for them, the social inequality gap will only widen.

Many charitable and community interest organisations work with such groups; with people that feel the impacts of financial or digital exclusion the most.

We want to reach lone parents, single pensioners, migrants and refugees, those with long term illnesses and disabilities,  those struggling to find sustained employment  and households headed by students or part-time workers. These are among the groups most commonly excluded from financial services.

People with low or unstable incomes, or those who have experienced a significant life shock, are particularly affected by financial exclusion. The pandemic will only have made this situation worse, as more and more basic services have moved to the web. We want to help charities build their capacity to help people to become digitally and financially empowered.

We want to provide grants to organisations in the UK, and support you in delivering digital and financial empowerment to people over the next three years.

• We are investing £1.8 million into our Financial & Digital Empowerment Fund in 2021.

• We aim to award 12 grants of up to a total of £150,000 per organisation. We’ll award grants over a three-year period.

If accepted, you can ask for differing amounts in each of the three years. You can request a minimum of £25,000 in any one year, with the maximum of £150,000 over three years.

For more information and to apply, please visit The Santander Foundation | Santander Sustainability

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund

Fund Aims

• The fund will provide support to community and voluntary organisations who wish to explore and or enhance diversity, equity and inclusion within the group and its community.

• Supporting organisations to think about how best Equity, Diversity and Inclusion can be addressed enabling everyone in the community to realise their potential.

Background to the Fund

• Our communities are becoming more diverse. We need to reflect this diversity at all levels.

• As our society changes, our organisations also must change.

• This Fund is supported by Comic Relief to support groups to begin these conversations and reflections, so that they can strive to be inclusive to all.

For the purposes of the fund the Foundation use the following definitions:

Diversity

Involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.

Equity

Fairness or justice in the way we treat people.

Inclusion

Providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized.

Size of Grant:

We will offer grants ranging from £500 to £1,000

We want to prioritise projects that:

• Assist in making organsiations management structures, policies, decision making, activities and programmes reflective of the diversity we have in our society.

• Assisting organisations to Identify the barriers and provide solutions to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within their organisation

• Demonstrate a commitment to implementing the solutions, reflecting greater diversity, equity and inclusion in their organisation

Eligibility:

Applicant Must:

• Be constituted and based in Northern Ireland

• Have an active committee and current bank account

• Have financial records and present accounts to your AGM

• Have at least two cheque signatories who are unrelated

• Have an income of £250k or less

What we will fund:

Whilst the Foundation prefers to receive applications seeking support based on lived experience, examples of what could be funded include:

• Diversity Equity and Inclusion Training for management committees and volunteers

• Review of policies and procedures to identify levels of diversity and develop an action plan to update these policies and procedures Developing a group/organisation Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan

• Explore how diverse communities can be involved in the design and delivery of programmes and activities

• Community analysis to identify how diverse community is and what could be delivered to support those diverse communities

• Explore a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Community Leadership Programme

There is no closing date for applications. For more information and to apply, please visit Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund - Community Foundation Northern Ireland (communityfoundationni.org)

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund Information Workshop

The Community foundation NI are delighted to be launching a new fund - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund.

About this event

The fund will provide support to community and voluntary organisations who wish to explore and/or enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the group and its community.

Supporting organisations to think about how best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion can be addressed, enabling everyone in the community to realise their potential.

Fund opens - 5th September via the Foundations website

Grant size - £500 - £1,000

This fund will prioritise projects that:

- Demonstrate an acknowledgement from the group/organisation that, whilst their communities are becoming more diverse, their management structures, policies, decision making, activities and programmes, may not reflect this diversity and may lead to in-equity and exclusion.

- Set out a pathway which focuses on identifying the barriers and solutions to improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within their management structures, policies, decision making, activities and programmes.

- Demonstrate a commitment to implementing the solutions, to reflect greater Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in their management structures, policies, decision making, activities and programmes.

To register for the event please visit Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fund Information Workshop Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite