Helping community projects to succeed

Got a great idea for a community project, but need a little help to get it off the ground?

The Onward Community Fund aims to support local groups and projects.

Underpinned by our mission ‘To make a positive difference in the communities we serve’ groups can bid for up to £2,500 for their neighbourhood. Examples could include: IT training, youth projects or community events.

Projects should aim to address one or more of the following:

• Theme 1 – Building Stronger Communities
Supporting individuals and neighbourhood community organisations to increase their expertise and develop their interest groups, in order to help the wider community and increase opportunities.

• Theme 2 – Employment and Training
Supporting individuals to access employment, training and enterprise opportunities.

• Theme 3 – Digital Inclusion
Being unable to interact and transact online has a direct and tangible impact on many key areas of everyday life. We will work in partnership in our communities to support customers to maximise their digital inclusion.

• Theme 4 – Building Community Food Resilience
Supporting efforts to address food insecurity within our communities, we will continue to support organisations at the forefront of tackling this current public health emergency.

• Theme 5 – Youth Provision
To ensure that the offer for young people evolves to meet changing needs. This is particularly important given the current economic situation, so we need to encourage collaboration between all providers to get the best for children and young people in terms of access to employment, training, and enterprise opportunities.

• Theme 6 – Mental Wellbeing and Greenspaces
Supporting organisations who are well placed to provided mental health support, recognising the increasing challenges relating to this issue, or develop innovative models of early intervention around access to greenspace. and community networks.

The following projects were awarded funding in the last judging round.

Greater Manchester

• Knit and Natter Creative Craft Club (Hattersley) awarded £983
• AVRO FC (Oldham) awarded £2500
• Progress Education (Oldham) awarded £2474
• Westhoughton One Stop Shop (Westhoughton) awarded £1250
• Fit over 50 CIC awarded £880  (Hattersley)

Lancashire

• Lancashire Women awarded  £2500 (Hyndburn & Ribble Valley)
• Friends of Rhyddings Park awarded   £1000  (Hyndburn)

• Read Easy Preston £980  awarded    (Preston)
• Ribble Valley Health and wellbeing partnership awarded  £2500 (Ribble Valley) 

Merseyside

• Hoby UK (North Liverpool) awarded  £500
• Food Larder – The Little Centre awarded (Beechwood- Wirral)  £2500
• Bee Wirral (Beechwood Biston & Ballantyne) awarded  £2474
• Positive Impact (Princes Park, Riverside, Picton) awarded   £2480
• Anfield Amateur Boxing Club (Anfield, Everton) awarded  £2500

Applications must meet the following criteria:

• The project must benefit Onward neighbourhoods – see a list of our neighbourhoods here.
• Organisations must be constituted and have their own bank account

Application process

There is a two stage process starting with an expression of interest form which must be completed online. A member of the Social Investment Team will contact you to discuss your project in more detail and check you eligibility to our fund. If Onward Homes decide to take your application forward, an application form will be emailed to you to complete.

Interested?

Please complete the expression of interest form below and a member of the team will be in touch. For more information on the Onward Community Fund please email socialinvestment@onward.co.uk.

Deadline dates to submit applications:

Round 1: 15^th May 2021

Round 2: 15^th July 2021

Round 3: 15^th October 2021

Round 4: 15^th January 2022