£82,000 in small grants available for Nottingham community projects
Melanie May | 17 August 2021 | News
Castle Cavendish, which distributes Nottingham City Council’s area-based grants to help community and voluntary sector organisations, is offering £82,000 in small grants to help local groups make a difference in their communities.
The foundation already works with a range of organisations across nine areas of the city, including Basford, Hyson Green, Radford and The Meadows and wants to hear about more community-led ideas as part of its locally identified needs grants programme again this year.
The money is part of the £455,000 that Castle Cavendish is currently distributing over the next year to support community-based activities such as play and youth provision for children and young people, employment and training schemes and wider support for communities to reconnect post-pandemic.
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Grants are available from the Castle Cavendish website, with other support offered alongside them.
Van Henry, Castle Cavendish’s area partnerships manager, explained:
“It might be a celebration event, a
community-based project or a local issue that has emerged and needs addressing urgently, as we’ve found a number of times during lockdown.
“There’s a very simple and straightforward application process. We’ve stripped away as much of the red tape as possible so that we’re able to respond quickly to meet local needs. It also acts as seed funding, allowing grassroots groups to
access small grants to develop their ideas and grow.
“A local group might apply for a small grant to fund a community event but we will also support them in other ways, like planning and promoting the event, making sure they have the right policies and procedures in place, identifying and tapping into other support networks, encouraging more volunteers and training staff. We try and provide whatever they need to grow and develop, to be resilient and increase their offer to local communities.
“We’d really like to hear from more local groups. There are a number of priorities that we’re looking to address, particularly around tackling loneliness and isolation, food insecurity and digital inclusion – all issues we have responded to during the pandemic.”
The Mesopotamia charity shop in Basford is among those recently supported by Castle Cavendish with grant funding to towards the creation of a new community launderette and a food parcel delivery van. The charity helped more than 11,000 people during the pandemic by delivering weekly food supplies.
Main image: Mesopotamia’s Rachel Miller in front of the new laundrette facilities funded by Castle Cavendish
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.