Round 29 of Community Education Fund

The Community Learning team at West Berkshire Council is pleased to invite bids for Round 29 of the Community Education Fund for projects to be delivered from 1st August 2015 - 31st July 2016. This fund is focused on developing Community Learning and Skills opportunities for adults (19+) and families in West Berkshire. 

The funding available covers the following areas:
·         Community Learning - which aims to maximize access to learning for adults and families bringing new opportunities, improving lives and communities whatever people's circumstances
·         Adult Skills – which supports qualifications aimed at adults without Level 2 qualifications or those who are unemployed and on active benefits


For more details please visit their website by clicking here. on our website.    

To apply, submit the bid form and the course details spreadsheet on the website and email them to aclteam@westberks.gov.uk by 5pm Thursday 2nd July 2015.

 

Buttle UK: providing practical solutions to help children

Buttle UK is named after Frank Buttle, a remarkable man whose hard work and personal sacrifice helped to establish our grant programmes, which have been helping children and young people in need across the UK since 1953.

We do this by providing practical solutions that give children a fighting chance in life.
Buttle UK operates the following grant programmes:

Small Grants Programme 
Delivering essential items to children, young people and families whose development, health and well-being are at risk. An essential item could be anything that we all take for granted but many families in poverty are living without, such as a children's bed, cooker, fridge-freezer or washing machine.

School Fees Programme
Some children, many because of problems at home, do not thrive in mainstream education, and so fail or drop out of school entirely. The School Fees Programme funds places at schools that provide a safe and supportive environment for those at future risk of going into formal care. It enables children with medical, emotional or social difficulties to gain a stable and more supportive secondary education.

Support for Young People
Our Enhanced Packages Programme provides funding of up to £2,000 for estranged young people aged 16-20. Our caseworking team works directly with young people and referrers to remove the financial barriers that stand in the way of achieving their long-term education, employment or training goals

Courtesy of Slough CVS

Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust welcomes Applications

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust welcomes applications throughout the year from organisations whose work is legally charitable as defined by UK law.

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is interested in funding work which is about removing problems through radical solutions, and not simply about making problems easier to live with has a clear sense of objectives, and of how to achieve them is innovative and imaginative and where the grant has a good chance of making a difference.

Applications can be made at any time under the following priority areas:

Peace and Security to support a transition towards:
The use of 'soft', rather than 'hard' power as a first line of response to conflict within society and around the world.
The de-legitimisation of violence as a tool for responding to conflict, securing interests or projecting power.
A culture of human rights and non-violent problem-solving, promoted at all levels of society.
Power and Accountability - to support people to create a world in which power is more equally shared, and in which powerful institutions are responsive and accountable to wider society and aligned with the long-term public interest.
Rights and Justice - to promote racial justice and equality of opportunity as a basis for a harmonious multi-racial, multi-ethnic society in the UK.
Sustainable Future - to develop and promote sustainable, low-carbon alternatives to the current consumerist and growth-based paradigm.
Northern Ireland - to fund work which will contribute as a strategic level to the ongoing transformation of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Organisations should be undertaking work at a national level. This means work that seeks to make positive change across the UK as a whole, or across one or more of its member countries - England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The next deadline for applications for Northern Ireland and all cross cutting applications is 17 August 2015 (12 noon).

The next deadline for all other applications is 1 September 2015 (12 noon).

Further information and an online application form can be found on the JRCT website

Information courtesy of j4bcommunity.co.uk.

Big Lottery Fund Publishes Building Better Opportunities Guide

The Big Lottery Fund has published a programme guide on how the Building Better Opportunities Programme will operate when it opens for funding this summer.

The Building Better Opportunities programme is bringing together funding of approximately £440 million from the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund (ESF) to help tackle the poverty and social exclusion faced by the most disadvantaged people in England. The funding is expected to be available in England over the next four years, starting from summer 2015.

The money is being divided among 39 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas, each of which will have a strategy for how the money will be spent. The number of projects and the amount of funding will vary according to the LEP area. The LEP are partnerships between local authorities and businesses set up to help determine economic priorities and lead economic growth and job creation within local areas. Organisations that are interested in applying for funding should check the priorities for their LEP area. This can be done by clicking on the relevant LEP link on the map located on the Big Lottery Fund website

Projects are expected to be delivered by partnerships and lead organisations should have:

• A clear vision for responding to the priorities of the local area, backed up by appropriate expertise.
• A proven track record of managing complex projects, relative to the size of any partnership and the amount of money involved.
• Good connections for ensuring a wide cross section of organisations are able to get involved.
• Strategies for managing and coordinating any partnership throughout the planning, set-up and delivery of the project.

Applications will need to be made in response to one of the project outlines which will describe each specific funding opportunity that is available through the programme and set out what each project aims to achieve and the areas or groups of people that it needs to target. Funding will only be available for one project per project outline. Although each project outline will be different, there are five key principles that unite them.

Projects must:

• Help the most disadvantaged - some groups of people are more disadvantaged than others when it comes to finding work and it is these individuals that Building Better Opportunities aspires to help.
• Tackle social exclusion - rather than just treating the symptoms, projects must help address the root causes of poverty and exclusion that are barriers to an individual seeking work.
• Be focused on the capabilities of each individual - projects are expected to build on people's strengths by developing their skills and talents to help them overcome the challenges they face.
• Lead to better coordinated services - in the main, services will need to be delivered in partnership between organisations that already have expertise in working with those most in need.
• Create new opportunities for work - it is therefore essential that there is engagement with employers to ensure there are pathways for people to progress into work.
• There will be a two-stage application process. Stage one is fully open and competitive. Applicants who are successful at this stage will be invited to go to stage two. A support team will be available to work with organisations as they develop their stage two plans.

BIG will publish a project outline for each specific funding opportunity that will be available through Building Better Opportunities. These will be published in two rounds during 2015.

Further information can be found on the Big Lottery Fund website

Information courtesy of J4Bcommunity.co.uk

Have you got what it takes to be a #LocalHero?

This June, Localgiving is celebrating all the fantastic fundraisers who put themselves out to raise money on behalf of a local charity. From marathons to bungee jumps, sponsored silences to fire walks – there is a whole host of people who do amazing things to support local causes. 

To help give a boost to their efforts, Localgiving will be awarding £5,000 in prizes to the causes supported by the top 20 fundraisers in June. Participants will be ranked according to the number of unique online donors from whom they secure sponsorship throughout the month. The top prize of £1,000 will go to the chosen cause of the fundraiser who has secured the most donors at the end of the campaign. Our #LocalHero Leaderboard will give up to date information on who the current leaders are at any given time.

To take part, all you need to do is think of a challenge, set up your fundraising page and ask as many of your friends and family as possible to make a donation between the 1st and 30th of June 2015.

https://localgiving.com/localhero