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OCF is seeking donations to its High Sheriff’s Community Integration fund, which brings together people from different backgrounds, builds mutual understanding and encourages a sense of belonging to the wider community.

Through the grants made by the fund, we create life-changing connections between people who would not normally meet. For example, a grant to the Ark T Centre in 2016 enabled a project bringing together vulnerable young women at risk of exploitation with older women living in sheltered housing with similar experiences.

Other projects range from intercultural events and exhibitions to initiatives bringing together people from socio-economic backgrounds, as shown below.

For every donation made to the fund, OCF will match fund it pound for pound, up to a total of £25,000.

To make a donation, either:

  • Give online via our dedicated JustGiving campaign
  • Donate by cheque or CAF, payable to “Oxfordshire Community Foundation” with “Community Integration” marked on the reverse; send this to our office address along with a completed Gift Aid form
  • Make a bank transfer  contact us and we will provide our bank details and a reference for you to use.

Charities and community groups wanting to apply to this fund can do so here (opens 3rd April).

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The full list of Community Integration grants awarded in 2017 is as follows:
Group funded
Amount awarded
Project description
Museum of Oxford Development Trust
£3,175
This project builds on the Journeys to Oxford exhibition, which showcases the cultures of ethnic minority communities in the city. It will now tour five community centres, reaching an estimated 750 visitors, and giving participants a platform to tell their stories and celebrate their cultures with neighbours.
Cutteslowe Allotment Association
£4,667
This project will implement raised planting beds for wheelchair users and those with mobility issues who are not easily able to share in outdoor activities. It will bring together able-bodied volunteers, including young people, to support people with mobility issues and enable equal access to the garden project.
Cowley Road Works
£5,000
This project makes links between Muslim women and Western young women to share ideas about cultural and social issues. An acclaimed social artist will help the group explore these issues through creative projects, and design a touring textile and bikes exhibition of the resulting work.
Oxford Against Cutting
£5,000
This project coaches football to boys from FGM-affected communities. As well as playing football, boys will participate in workshops and discussions about healthy relationships, and the roles of girls and boys. FGM information will be included in order to educate and create the basis for change in communities.
Refugee Resource
£4,880
The funding will enable the delivery of four pop-up café community events. The project builds on a recipe book that was produced by Refugee Resource Women’s Project, by giving women the opportunity to cook and share food with others in their communities.
Oxford Contemporary Music
£3,795
In some communities, young people feel as though they cannot confidently enter places of arts and culture in the city because they feel it’s not a space for them. OCM will work with schools to create new mixed communities of young music-makers, taking performances and workshops into cultural spaces.
Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust (SOFO)
£4,700
An intergenerational group of volunteers from the Sikh, Hindu and Muslim Communities will design a new exhibition focusing on the Great War, aiming to highlight the important role played by Indian soldiers and to enhance the understanding of a shared British-Asian history.
Folk Arts Oxford
£5,000
This project aims to build understanding and common ground between children with special needs and children in mainstream schools. Children from a mix of mainstream and special needs schools will be coached in Makaton singing (using signing) and sing together.
African Families in the UK
£3,000
This project helps first-generation migrant parents to explore how cultural practice impacts on the safeguarding of children in the UK. The grant will fund parenting seminars, inter-cultural training for professionals and community and family days.
Oxford Hindu Temple and Community Centre Project
£3,000
The temple’s annual Oxford Mela event brings together different communities and gives them an opportunity to connect, have fun, build relationships and support each other through music, dance and cuisine. This grant will help extend its reach for the 9th Mela in 2018.
EMBS Community College
£4,998
This project will bring together small groups of women from different ethnic groups, cultures or religions with an interest in making or altering their own clothes. It will encourage mutual understanding, as well as teaching practical skills and saving money.
Full Circle
£4,264
Full Circle brings children and older people in Oxfordshire together to share fun and friendship. Groups meet in schools to share lunch and creative activities. This grant will enable the recruitment of new volunteers and the set-up of two new groups with primary school children.
 
£51,479