We are delighted to launch another round of Community Capacity funding, thanks to £325,000 from Oxfordshire County Council. Applications are now open for grassroots organisations throughout Oxfordshire to help support people with independence, resilience and addressing preventable conditions.
Following the first round of Community Capacity grant funding, held in the winter of 2022, we are partnering again with Oxfordshire County Council to deliver another round of grant funding. Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 will be made to grassroots charitable organisations in Oxfordshire. The Community Capacity grants support the Council’s Oxfordshire Way vision: “to support the people of Oxfordshire to live well in their community, remaining fit and healthy for as long as possible: to build community resilience and increase independence”. Local community organisations play a huge role in supporting people to thrive with less need for government services. This can help people have a much better quality-of-life.
Councillor Tim Bearder, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: “We’ve seen in the last year how this programme can make a real difference to people’s lives. By providing funds to organisations at the heart of our communities, it helps them to expand their valuable work and strengthens our adult social care Oxfordshire Way vision of enabling people to live well and independently closer to home.”
We are working hard to make the application process more accessible through a variety of ways: Our Grants team are providing some application support drop-in sessions, trialling alternative ways to apply, and offering practical self-help advice for completing the application form. This is something we will be continuously improving with a goal of ensuring equity to all of our applicants, providing gold-standard grant-making.
Oxfordshire charitable organisations can apply for a Community Capacity grant from 6th September until 28th September. Funding decisions will be announced by 1st December with funding awarded by 22nd December.
In addition to the £325,000 Community Capacity fund, there will be an additional Connected Communities fund of £175,000 administered by Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (OCVA) and Community First Oxfordshire (CFO) who will distribute smaller grants of up to £5,000. Organisations may only receive funding from one of these two schemes.
You can find out more information about Community Capacity grants, including details of the drop-in sessions, FAQs and Guidance documents, on the Community Capacity web page.