There are still many communities in the UK that suffer from economic and social deprivation and the current economic climate may make this situation worse.
For this reason, Comic Relief has decided that £4.5 million should be available to fund projects across the UK which are addressing these issues through the 'Local Communities' programme
Comic Relief is pleased to be working with UK Community Foundations and Community Foundations across the UK, to deliver this Local Communities programme.
The Local Communities programme will run for 18 months and during this time, grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 will be available.
The programme aims to empower local people, enabling them to create lasting change in their communities. Projects should be run by people directly affected by the issues they are dealing with and priority will be given to small, locally based groups or organisations in areas of disadvantage that have a clear understanding of the needs of their community.
Under the programme, organisations can apply for funding to:
1. Improve people's life skills, education, employability and enterprise
2. Maximise people's ability to strengthen community cohesion and build social capacity
3. Provide people with opportunities to access local services, achieve greater social justice and to reduce inequality, exclusion and disadvantage
4. Advance people's physical and mental health, wellbeing and safety
Organisations which have received a Community Cash grant or any other grant from a Community Foundation can apply for a Local Communities grant. However organisations which hold a grant directly from Comic Relief, cannot apply for a Local Communities Grant.
A Local Communities grant must be at least 30% of the total cost of the project.
Who can apply?
• Community Groups
• Resident Associations
• Community Centres
• Social Enterprises/Community Interest Companies
• Credit Unions
Examples of the type of activities we will fund
• Community sport activities
• Furniture Projects
• Projects providing access to benefits advice
• Projects combating fuel poverty
• Community consultation exercises
• Community employment projects
• Food Co-ops
• Running costs; including salaries, core costs and project costs
• Committee and volunteer/staff training
Exclusions
The criteria do not include the award of the Grant:
• to individuals;
• to statutory organisations, including schools;
• to fund trips abroad;
• to fund buses, mini buses or other community transport schemes (not including transport costs forming part of a project);
• to fund building costs, including access adaptations to buildings;
• to organisations who are in receipt of a grant directly from Comic Relief
* Please note that there is no specific closing date for the fund. This is because there are limited funds available and we do not want to disappoint too many applicants. Therefore, the fund will close as soon as we reach an oversubscription ratio of 3:1 and this can be at any point so we recommend you apply as soon as possible. The grants panel will be meeting in December.
