The council’s new Community Catalyst Fund and Fairness Fund for People and Place are now open for applications from local community and voluntary sector groups.
Offering grants between £2,000 and £20,000 for projects that improve the wellbeing of residents and communities experiencing poverty as well as projects that support the ambitions of the council plan to create a fairer, healthier, more inclusive city that works for all.
We’ll be working with community panels to award the funding, making sure that our decisions are informed by people who truly understand what works best for and is needed by residents and communities.
The Community Catalyst Fund is one of 2 investment streams of the recently established Thriving Communities Investment Fund.
The Thriving Communities Investment Fund is targeted at supporting small and medium community groups with a longer-term strategic approach to tackling inequality and investing in marginalised communities of place and identity to ensure they thrive and flourish.
The £200,000 Community Catalyst Fund offers community groups up to £20,000 for the 2 years. Groups must have an annual income that does not exceed £500,000.
The successful applicants will have to demonstrate how their project meets at least one of these three outcomes in the council plan:
The Fairness Fund for Communities provides one-off funding of £2,000 to community groups for activity that will help residents experiencing poverty and the cost-of-living crisis.
The Fairness Fund has 2 parts.
The Fairness Fund for People supports grass-roots community action led by and supporting disabled, black and racially minoritised or LGBTQ+ people experiencing poverty and marginalisation.
A total fund of £70,000 is available and it is anticipated that around £23,000 will be allocated to projects supporting the three different communities.
We are setting up a community panel of people from those communities to decide on applications and are keen to support projects taking an intersectional approach.
The Fairness Fund for Place supports grass-roots community action led by and supporting communities experiencing poverty in their neighbourhood.
A total fund of £100,000 is available and this will be divided equally across 4 areas of the city. The Trust for Developing Communities and the Hangleton & Knoll Project will facilitate resident panels to decide on applications.
Councillor Leslie Pumm, Cabinet member for Communities, Equalities and Human Rights, said: “I am very pleased that, despite a very tight budget, we’re able to allocate funding to support organisations and groups who work hard to make our city a fairer, healthier, more inclusive and overall better place to live.
“We set up the Brighton & Hove Fairness Fund to draw together different funding streams to provide an ongoing safety net, supporting those most in need as the city continues to address poverty.
“We’ve previously seen our community funding support fantastic projects and make a real difference within the city’s communities and to the lives of our residents.
“We are excited to work with a community-led panel to assess the applications and keep the decisions within those it concerns the most.
“We’ve set up the application process to be as accessible as possible, so that smaller grass-roots groups can benefit.”
The deadline for applications to the Community Catalyst Fund is Friday 18 October 2024.
The deadline for applications to the Fairness Fund for People and Place is Friday 4 October 2024.
There will be an online information session on Monday 16 September for groups interested in applying to either of the new funds. To sign up, please email communitiesteam@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
For more details on the Community Catalyst Fund, including how to apply, visit our Community Catalyst Fund webpage.
To learn more about Fairness Fund for People and Place, visit Fairness Fund webpage.
Frequently asked questions about the Community Catalyst Fund and the Fairness Fund.
