Bassetlaw District Council is offering communities the chance to bid for a number of grants as part of the Council’s portion of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund worth £3.3million.
Thanks to Government funding secured by the Council, a number of projects will be coming forward over the next two years that benefit businesses, local communities and groups in the voluntary sector.
The first set of grants to be available include the Arts and Heritage Grant Programme and the Community and Voluntary Grant Programme. This is in addition to the £715,000 Rural England Heritage Fund that will move to a full application stage this month following a successful Expression of Interests period, which ended on 18th July.
The Arts and Heritage Grants will help to fund local arts, heritage, cultural and creative projects and will be available across two funding streams that will offer grants of between £500 and £5,000, as well as smaller grants of between £500 and £1,000. The application period for this funding will end on Monday 7th August at 5.00pm. More details are available by visiting www.bassetlaw.gov.uk/ukspf.
A larger Community and Voluntary Grant Programme worth £337,000 is also in progress and the Council recently announced that Bassetlaw Community and Voluntary Service (BCVS) has been appointed to develop, manage and administer the programme over the next two years, on behalf of the Council.
Just some of the interventions that BCVS will make include providing opportunities in more deprived localities and in rural communities. Other priorities will include creating more volunteer opportunities, enhancing engagement in community activities and promoting community cohesion, as well as improving health and wellbeing and tackling social isolation across the district. To learn more about applying for this funding, please visit www.bcvs.org.uk/ukspf.
Councillor Julie Leigh, Cabinet Member for Identity and Place said: “Community and voluntary groups play a huge part in making Bassetlaw a vibrant, inclusive, healthy and welcoming district.
“We recognise their important and valuable contributions and, through this funding, we hope to make it easier for groups to access smaller grants for projects that will make a real difference in their local neighbourhoods.
“With this investment, we also want to enable more community and voluntary groups to emerge and become established and we are delighted that BCVS will help to make this happen.”
To learn more about all of the grants mentioned here, as well as future funding opportunities that will come forward through the UKSFP, please visit www.bassetlaw.gov.uk/ukspf.