Don’t miss the chance to bid

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council is inviting such groups to apply for funding for the financial year starting Friday 1st April 2011.

In 2010/11, the Council gave grants worth nearly £588,000 to 30 local voluntary and community groups. These ranged from £350 to £185,813 and covered a wide range of activities, services and projects such as the Homeless Action Resource Project (HARP), Trust Links - supporting those with mental health issues and their carers, DIAL - the Disability Advice Network and YMCA SOS Bus Project. 

The Council will decide grant allocations for the financial year 2011/12 according to the following priorities:

ü      Services the Council would have to provide if the sector were unable to

ü      Information and advice service provision

ü      Children and Young People

ü      Community Cohesion and Engagement

ü      Community Safety

ü      Culture and Leisure

ü      Health and Social Well-being

When groups apply for grants, they must clearly show in their application how they meet these priorities.

To be considered for a grant award, groups must be:

ü      Groups that are non-statutory organisations

ü      Groups that are formally constituted

ü      Groups that operate in the not-for-profit sector

ü      Groups that are clearly able to demonstrate their ability, through a grant award, to deliver benefit to the community within the grant year and to sustain their activities

ü      Groups whose activities benefit residents of Southend.

Anyone interested in applying for a grant should view the application pack at http://www.southend.gov.uk/info/871/community_grants to see if they are eligible.

This year the Council is also again running its Community Chest programme aimed at small-scale project within Southend. Applications of up to £2,000 will be considered for this fund, which has a £10,000 budget. The Annual and Community Chest programmes close at 4.45pm on Friday 17th December 2010 and no applications received after this date will be considered.  The Council's In-Year grants programme will also continue during 2011/12.  This fund is for pump-priming new groups, emergency matters for established groups and for special events that promote community cohesion and well-being in Southend. 

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's Deputy Leader, Councillor John Lamb says: "Our voluntary and community organisations give tremendous and vital help in our borough. We want to do our best to support as many of them as we can. As our resources are limited, we need to be very clear about our priorities for funding. We stick firmly to these when we face the exceptionally difficult task of allocating the grants. We strongly urge all voluntary and community groups who wish to apply for a grant, to do so as soon as possible to make the most of this opportunity."

For further information please contact Southend-on-Sea Borough Council on 01702 215000.