Partnering with Worcestershire County Council and District Councils (in the south of the County), Worcestershire Community Foundation are allocating grants to Voluntary and Community Sector organisations reaching vulnerable households in Worcester City, Wychavon and Malvern Hills Districts.
Deadline for Applications – 12 noon, Friday 22nd January
Funding must be spent and reported on by end of April 2021
Please apply here
Guidelines
Target:
To reach families with children and other vulnerable households, particularly affected by the pandemic.
These may be families or vulnerable people who:
- Were already struggling but the pandemic has forced them into greater hardship
- Were previously coping but the pandemic has plunged them into hardship for the first time (some of these families may have come onto to your radar already, however, some may yet need to be reached)
Considerations for your application
- In your application, please be realistic about the numbers you can reach and your capacity to do so.
- Please help us to understand how we can be sure you can reach those families and vulnerable households.
- Monitoring will require you to record the postcode of the families/vulnerable households reached and how much funding each receives.
- All funding must have been spent and reported on by the end of April 2021.
The following are not essential but if you are able to include either of the following in your application, WCF would welcome that:
- If your reach includes BAME communities, please state that in your application, as WCF are keen to monitor how effectively we are reaching these communities;
- If you have proactive ways to reach families that are impacted by hardship for the first time, we would be keen to hear about how you are doing that in your application.
How much to apply for:
- WCF are seeking applications up to £5,000, however, the panel will use their discretion in considering higher applications.
- Where your organisation has no other existing resource to fund the capacity to undertake this work, your application form can include up to 15% to cover your internal administration costs. When evaluating this, please bear in mind that WCF are, of course, keen to see as much of the available funding as possible directly reaching those families and vulnerable households that need it at this time.
The funding is to provide:
- Food
- Energy and water bills for household purposes (including drinking, washing, cooking, central heating, and sanitary purposes) and sewerage
- Essential goods (including sanitary products, warm clothing, soap, blankets, boiler service/repair, purchase of equipment including fridges, freezers, ovens, etc.)
The target groups are:
- Vulnerable households with children (we are aiming at circa 80%)
- Vulnerable households and individuals without children (we are aiming at circa 20%)
- Up to 80% of the total funding can be used to provide support with food, energy and water bills for household purposes (including drinking, washing, cooking, central heating, and sanitary purposes) and sewerage. Within this condition there is flexibility about the proportion of support allocated to food and to bills.
- Up to 20% of the total funding can be used to provide support with other essentials clearly linked to the scheme conditions (including sanitary products, warm clothing, soap, blankets, boiler service/repair, purchase of equipment including fridges, freezers, ovens, etc.), in recognition that a range of costs may arise which directly affect a household’s ability to afford or access food, energy and water.
- NB – the scheme is not intended to cover payment of rent or other housing costs because these are not directly related to food or utility bills and other benefits and support is available to cover these costs. Nor is it intended to be used for the provision of general advice on managing debt and/or financial hardship.
If you have any questions about any aspect of making an application to this fund, please contact [email protected]
For further information on Worcestershire Council support and grants programmes please go to:
Here2help
Ready Steady Worcestershire
