Has your organisation been planning a new and bold initiative but lacked the necessary funding? The RAISE Challenge Fund is looking to support innovation, piloting, testing and development in the voluntary sector to help local organisations make a step change and achieve greater results.
OCF has awarded a large grant to Trax, an Oxford-based charity that provides training opportunities and counselling to disadvantaged and disengaged young people. The group, which specialises in bike refurbishment, is using the grant to create a social enterprise model that will allow them to be self-sufficient.
The Future-Building Fund takes a ground-breaking approach to supporting the local charitable sector, providing large grants to help ambitious charities significantly scale up their operation. The fund has recently awarded grants to Trax and Yellow Submarine, with more in the pipeline.
Annual festival Folk Weekend: Oxford will be held on 17th-19th April 2015, and holds events throughout the city centre. This year, funding from OCF will help them include a Makaton project in the event, aimed at people with communication difficulties.
Steeple Aston’s seniors group The Valentine Club has received a metaphorical red rose from OCF, as they are awarded a £1,000 grant from the Surviving Winter appeal to help them share friendship and activities for rural over-60s.
Community groups in Oxfordshire now have the chance to apply for Comic Relief funding via OCF, with new online forms now available for this and other funds. This grants round will be open on a one-off basis for 2015, and will close on Monday 23rd February, so groups only have three weeks to apply.
OCF staff meet many inspiring people working at the heart of their community, accompanied by a beautiful banner supplied by friends at Dijon Designs!
Unique activity network Generation Games provides fitness classes and information to make Oxfordshire’s elderly population happier and healthier.
We were delighted to learn that John Lubbock, artistic director of the Orchestra of St John’s, has received an OBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours List.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has praised the role of community foundations in creating an inclusive capitalism, as OCF-funded charity My Life My Choice starts a new campaign asking for tolerance and inclusion.