Funding for small local voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in England that are working to reduce loneliness and isolation by bringing people and communities together.
The second of two rounds of the £4 million Local Connections Fund provided by the Government and the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) has opened for applications.
NLCF is providing £2 million for this round with grants of between £300 and £2,500 available to small local not-for-profit organisations with an income of £50,000 or less.
The funding is to be used to:
- Build relationships in and across communities to help reduce loneliness and build connections between people and communities
- Bring together organisations who are working on social connections to celebrate their work, share learning and best practice, and form/bring together peer networks.
Round 2 will focus on:
- Activities that physically bring people together in a safe and secure way.
- Remote activities (when this is the best or only way for people to build connections) - for example, remote activities may benefit people who are geographically isolated, people with illnesses or disabilities, or those who are not quite ready to meet people in face-to-face settings.
- Helping individuals to get out of the ‘lockdown mentality’ and meet people in their communities again for activities which will be a positive experience for people.
- Helping organisations who work to reduce loneliness restart their activities - for example, getting volunteers or service users to clean and refresh their meeting spaces or grounds, or refreshing materials, and ensuring equipment is ready to be used.
The funding can be used for:
- Staff salaries
- Volunteer expenses
- Management costs
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Overheads
- General project costs
- Small items of equipment, like a laptop.
Projects for Round 2 must be completed and the grant spent by 30 November 2021. If you have received funding from round on ethen you are exempt from applying to the second round.