New £2mn winter support fund launches, & more funding news
Melanie May | 30 November 2023 | News
Read on for new and recent funding announcements – both funds available and awarded, including Cadent Foundation’s new £2mn Winter Support Fund, and more money for the Adventures Away from Home Fund.
Cadent Foundation launches £2mn Winter Support Fund
The Cadent Foundation has today announced the launch of its first ever Winter Support Fund to support communities across the UK.
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The new £2 million pound fund aims to offer energy and food support to people living in the most vulnerable situations this winter and will be distributed through Cadent Foundation’s current charity partners, including Citizens Advice, Groundwork UK and Trussell Trust.
Launching on Fuel Poverty Awareness Day (30 November), the fund is designed to allow charities offering energy and money guidance, to have rapid access to additional financial resources, helping to make an immediate impact for people needing extra support.
The food and energy vouchers will be available to people who are living in the most vulnerable situations and who Cadent Foundation’s current charity partners, including the Trussell Trust and Citizens Advice, are supporting with energy efficiency and money management guidance.
The funding boost will be available between December and March. Each household can receive up to two vouchers, with the option of also having up to £100 to spend on essential heating and cooking appliances, such as heated blankets, slow cookers and air fryers.
£1.5 million additional funding for outdoor learning fund to support underrepresented young people in England
UK Youth has been selected as the delivery partner for the second phase of the Adventures Away from Home Fund (AAfH), 2023/24. In partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the new £1.5 million fund aims to provide 8,500 disadvantaged young people, aged 11-18, or up to 25 for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), with bursaries to take part in outdoor learning.
The fund will allow underrepresented young people to take part in outdoor learning experiences that support their personal development through connections with other young people, trusted adults and nature.
The AAfH fund will support charity and not-for-profit organisations in England to deliver outdoor learning experiences in the form of full day sessions and/or two night residential stays. Applications are now open for organisations to apply.
Application forms must be submitted by midday on Monday 11 December and full eligibility details can be found on the UK Youth website.
Using the charity’s Experience, Learn, Develop model as a framework for delivery, UK Youth will ensure programmes are accessible, support personal wellbeing and development, and create positive connections to nature and physical literacy. UK Youth provides a structure whilst allowing organisations to personalise delivery to meet the needs of young people.
As part of the first phase of the Fund in 2022/23, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided £600,000 to support UK Youth to work with 45 outdoor learning providers, enabling more than 3,500 disadvantaged young people to engage in outdoor learning experiences across England. Every young person received a bursary to attend their session and were provided with additional assistance to overcome any accessibility barriers they faced.
Royal Society Edinburgh launches Healthy Planet, Healthy People: Community-led Awards
The ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’: Community-led Awards are designed to support community-led research projects focused on climate, nature, and food for a healthier planet and people, and are available to cover eligible costs arising from a defined research project.
Funding will be provided to support new and existing research projects that promote the health of individuals through fostering healthy environments and communities, and enabling access to healthy foods.
Projects should fall broadly under three types:
- People: awarded projects may identify neglected voices on particular topics and conduct research on this topic guided by these voices, taking a people-centred approach.
- Problem: awarded projects may address and identify issues through data collection and analysis.
- Practice: awarded projects may propose novel practical solutions to an established problem.
The impact of the project should be Scottish based, although it may be transferable to other communities.
The Williamson Trust and RSE are looking to award ten demonstrator pilot-scale projects led by community-based individuals or organisations, who would each receive an award amount of up to £5,000 to conduct a research project for up to 12 months.
Applications are open until noon on 22 January 2024.
Gigaclear Rural Sports Club Fund launches to support grassroots sports clubs
Launched by the UK’s leading rural alternative broadband provider, Gigaclear, the £75,000 Gigaclear Rural Sports Club Fund has been created to bolster grassroots sports clubs in rural England, within Gigaclear’s broadband network area.
Clubs can get in touch with Gigaclear to explain what they would use the money for and what it would mean to their club.
It is being supported by former England cricket international, and season 3 winner of Strictly, Darren Gough.
More information here.
Leeds Building Society pledges £240,000 to support people into safe & secure housing in Yorkshire
Five Yorkshire community projects will receive a share of £240,000 funding thanks to nominations from colleagues at Leeds Building Society, who teamed up with local organisations to secure support for causes close to their hearts.
The five projects all support diverse groups of people who experience barriers to home ownership, delivering practical support for marginalised groups to help them into safe and secure housing, and reducing their energy bills during this cost-of-living crisis.
Organisations receiving a share of the £240,000 funding:
- Pride of Place Living awarded £41,500 to establish the first ever LGBTQ+ affordable housing project in Leeds.
- Leeds Asylum Seekers Network (LASSN) awarded £27,500 to help retrofit one of their properties to reduce their carbon emissions and energy bills.
- Rush House awarded £76,500 for its A Place of Your Own pre-tenancy training programme to help vulnerable people, including young care leavers prepare to live independently.
- Leeds Action to Create Homes (LATCH) awarded £54,500 to help with essential furniture for single women and their children as they move from supported housing to independent living.
- Keighley Association for Women and Childrens Centre (KAWACC) awarded £40,000 for its Energy Know How project, supporting Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim women living in the most deprived neighbourhoods of Keighley to reduce their energy and household bills.
More on Leeds Building Society grants here.
Wesleyan’s Equality Grant launches with £70,000 donation to projects tackling inequality in society
Financial services mutual Wesleyan has donated grants totalling £70,000 to eight organisations across the UK dedicated to reducing inequalities in their local communities.
The Wesleyan Foundation launched its Equality Grant earlier this year with the goal of helping to drive greater equality for disadvantages groups within our society. This follows Wesleyan’s alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of reducing inequalities within countries.
Wesleyan invited organisations from around the UK to apply for grants to support their projects, with the eight successful charities being:
- DWRM (Doing What Really Matters)
- The Ledward Centre
- Edgbaston Foundation
- Young Enterprise
- Crohn’s & Colitis UK
- The Brilliant Club
- Oasis Community Housing
- Project Mama
Applications for its grants will reopen in 2024.
Clifford Chance chooses Alive and Kicking as the winner of £50,000 Sustainable Development Goals award
Global law firm Clifford Chance has named Alive and Kicking as the winner of its 2023 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) award.
Alive and Kicking’s core operation is the production of ethically and sustainably made sports balls to help adults in vulnerable job groups, including refugees, by creating employment opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa. The charity will receive a £50,000 donation and 500 hours of pro bono support over an 18-month period.
This year’s UN SDG Award was primarily centred on UN SDG 8 and the creation of sustainable economic opportunities to help people become self-reliant.
Alive and Kicking creates direct employment through its own centres and works in partnership with beneficiaries for its “Business in a Box” training programme which teaches refugees how to make and fix high quality sports balls, as well as build entrepreneurship skills so they can set up their own businesses. The award will support Alive and Kicking to scale up to working in other countries in Africa, develop commercial partnerships with more organisations and build awareness of its work.
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.