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Voluntary Organisation Grants

Rochford District Council offers small grants to local voluntary and community groups in the District.

The Voluntary Sector Grant application process is now closed. 

The funding is available to groups in the district that provide support for residents, monies are available up to £1000 for projects that aligns outcomes with those local strategic priorities as detailed in the Council’s Business Plan and the with the 4 priorities of the Castle Point & Rochford Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2025

The closing date for application was Thursday 29th February 2024.

All applicants will be contacted in due course.

If you want assistance with your application for the voluntary organisation grant please contact RRAVS.

Contact Us – RRAVS | Rayleigh and Rochford District Association for Voluntary Service 

Tel: 01268 772796

Email info@rravs.org.uk

Other funding 

Other funding is available to help groups and communities. We have listed these below and links to more information:

Find Your Active Small Grants fund is now open for 2024-25

This initiative is once again made possible thanks to London Marathon Foundation, following this year’s Ford RideLondon-Essex 2024 event. In line with Active Essex’s Find Your Active campaign, the London Marathon Foundation is committed to supporting projects in Essex that promote active and healthy lifestyles among residents.

This year, we have introduced a slightly different process for the funding application. We will be hosting at least two funding rounds, each open for approximately four weeks. After the submission period, applications will be reviewed by a panel to make the final decisions.

The priorities for the 2024-25 funding pot include: 

  • Supporting ethnically diverse communities in being more active
  • Assisting residents living with long term health conditions and disabilities to find the activity that’s right for them
  • Engaging children and young people in physical activity that ensures they are active, healthy and happy.

For more detailed information, please visit our webpage Find Your Active Fund - Active Essex

Essex County Council have launched a new grant scheme that aims to improve public safety in Essex.

Local groups can apply to the Community Safety Initiatives Fund. The fund aims to improve the safety of residents and address violence and vulnerability. Grants will be awarded to local groups for projects or initiatives within their own communities.

For more information please visit £100,000 announced for community safety projects in Essex | Essex County Council

The National Lottery Community Fund

The National Lottery offers small grants between £300 and £10,000 to voluntary and community groups to support people and communities impacted by COVID-19. You can find out more on The National Lottery Community Fund website.

Arts Council Open Funds

For a list of Arts Council funding and further information, please visit the funding page on the Arts Council website.

Public Health Accelerator Bid (PHAB) Programme

The Public Health Accelerator Bids (PHAB) programme will fund new projects that help people in Essex to live a healthy life.The £7.5 million grant programme will run for three years.PHAB will make a difference to the lives of many vulnerable residents across Essex. The programme focuses on closing the health inequalities experienced in the county.The programme consists of two grants:

  • small grants of between £500 and £15,000.
  • major grants from £15,000 with no upper limit.

For more information and to apply please visit Public Health Accelerator Bids (PHAB): Overview | Essex County Council

South East Essex Health Inequalities Fund

This funding initiative aims to support targeted projects and programmes for both Adults and Children and Young People (CYP) as expressed in the Core20PLUS5 approach.

There is a total of £400,000 available.

The fund's ambition is to fund projects aimed at adults, families, children and young people. See the funding guidance.

The Health Inequalities funding aims to support projects that use innovative and collaborative methods to reduce health disparities and address preventable differences in healthcare outcomes.

  • Address inequalities in health outcomes, patient experience and access to healthcare
  • Focus on three adult clinical priorities: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), Cancer, and Respiratory Disease
  • Provide preventative solutions or support for a specific community’s needs
  • Support the local Integrated Neighbourhood approach to reduce unnecessary visits and admissions to organisations and services that are part of the model
  • Reduce the demand on primary care, hospital, or mental health services
  • Address other local health inequalities based on the CORE20plus framework
  • Focus on five CYP clinical priorities: Asthma, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Oral Health, and Mental Health

Hubbub and Virgin Media O2 Tech Circular Economy Funding

Hubbub and Virgin Media O2 have launched a £500,000 fund "to support innovative programmes, initiatives and campaigns that promote digital inclusion while reducing e-waste and supporting the circular economy." The fund will support a range of projects with funding between £25,000 - £100,000. This includes things like;

  • a research project to help understand how the issues are connected
  • a campaign to redistribute devices
  • a project to fix old devices to be used by more people
  • a project that aims to tackle the root causes of these problems

For further information and to apply please visit About — Time after time e-waste fund (timeaftertimefund.org.uk)

Funding support for sports and activity clubs

Find Your Active Fund

The Find Your Active small grants applications have reopened to inspire activity in Essex.

As part of our Find Your Active brand, we are calling out to organisations, groups and instructors who will be able to apply for funds of up to £3,000, via the Active Essex website. Any organisation in Essex can apply for this funding and the money can be used to start up new activities or increase the numbers attending existing activities, all with the aim of getting more people active. Please visit  Find Your Active Fund - Active Essex to explore the criteria, read about the impact of the grant, and apply.

Sport England 

Sport England have opened a Small Grants Programme which seeks to develop opportunities for communities to get more people physically active and we'll support new projects through providing National Lottery funding of between £300 and £15,000.

Sport England’s Active Together fund is a crowdfunding initiative that can match fund, up to £10,000, successful Crowdfunder campaigns from a total pot of £7.5m.

Their Places and Spaces Fund is a £7 million pot with up to £10,000 available in match funding for Crowdfunder projects, as part of a Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games package to help community sport and physical activity groups improve places and spaces across England.

To find out which funding streams you can apply for, please visit Sport England website