Small Grants Scheme for Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest

The Small Grant Scheme is open to individuals, groups and small to medium businesses and organisations in Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest who can apply for up to £5000 with the deadline for applications being midday on Monday 28 September 2020.

Medium and Large Grant Schemes will also be launched later this autumn

KEY MESSAGES & TIMELINE

• Grants are available between £1,000 and £5,000 to fund projects and activities in Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest

• Grants support activity centred around arts, culture, innovation or creative place-making that focus on education, skills or training.

• Aimed at individuals, community groups and small/medium-sized organisations and businesses with turnover below £500k

• Small Grant Scheme Themes: Employment and learning; Arts, Culture, Innovation and Creative Place-making; Entrepreneurship, Resilience; Covid-19

Small Grant Scheme Guidelines

Foundation for Future London, through funding from Westfield Stratford City, has created the Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund to support local organisations and individuals to accelerate new project ideas, support start-up enterprises and increase education, training and skills development opportunities for the local community.

Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund is an ambitious five-year programme that aims to invest £10 million into the local communities of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest.

This flagship project will provide new jobs, learning, training and educational programmes through the means of arts, culture, innovation, public realm and creative place-making.

The programme aims to transform and catalyse the lives and careers of people in East London by putting funding, resources and support straight into local people’s hands.

The Small Grant Scheme is looking for project proposals from individuals, groups and organisations that will provide opportunities in employment and learning through arts, culture, innovation and creative place-making; entrepreneurship and resilience and to provide covid-19 response and support resilience within the four boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

The Fund is being administered by East End Community Foundation (EECF). Before applying, please read the following guidelines carefully and you can contact the EECF Grants Team on grants@eastendcf.org if you have any questions or want more information on the Fund.

Available Funding

Grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 are available for projects and activities running between 6 to 12-months across the four Olympic host boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest with a focus on education and employment through arts, culture and innovation.

Aims & Objectives

The Small Grant Scheme aims to kick-start projects, business and start-ups and local people’s employment opportunities through the development of new skills and qualifications.

The Small Grant Scheme aims to grow new ideas, encourage business start-ups and new community projects, develop existing and new projects and ideas, help people gain a qualification, new skills or training, improve health and well-being, showcase community heritage, culture and diversity and to counteract the impact of covid-19.

Projects must address at least one of the following key aims:

Employment & Learning Opportunities

Enabling local residents, particularly young people, to gain a qualification, build new skills or access training and work experience that leads to improved opportunities

Arts & Cultural Opportunities to Build Skills

Projects that engage the local community in heritage, cultural and diverse activities to learn new skills, access training or increase their employability.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Supporting start-ups and new community projects to grow new ideas, develop new social enterprise business ideas and pilot new ways of working e.g. digital tech and/or new cross-disciplinary innovation

Covid-19 Response

Counteracting the impact of covid-19 on the local community including the health and well-being of local residents

In your application we need to understand what the need is for your project, how this has been identified and how local people have been involved in the planning and development of the proposed activities. You or your organisation should be able to demonstrate that you have good links and networks in the community to deliver the activities and we welcome the involvement of volunteers.

Activities should take place across a range of local spaces to ensure grants reach a wide community audience e.g. Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) residents, people with disabilities, learning disabled people, unemployed and/or low waged residents, people without qualifications, homeless people, Gypsies and Travellers, LGBTQIA+ residents, children and young people, older people and

people with mental health issues or long-term health issues.

Project Examples

The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund aims to support a diverse range of projects and activities to increase the engagement and involvement of the local community in East Bank and its partners.

Below are some examples of the type of work we would be interested in supporting. This list is not exhaustive but will give you an idea of the scope of work that can be supported.

Administered by East End Community Foundation

• Research, development and piloting of new ideas related to education, employment, arts and culture and covid-19 response for the benefit of local people in need of support

• Small events including festivals, workshops, exhibitions, talks and showcases etc. to help connect the local community to the East Bank development and local arts and cultural opportunities

• Creative learning projects to build new skills and networks

• Community engagement projects to involve residents in local developments and issues in and around East Bank

• Professional network building and development

• Learning and training activities to improve skills and opportunities for local people, including mentoring and coaching, increasing SEND provisions or support for NEET young people

• Extra-curricular initiatives to support young people’s development and safety

• Inclusivity and diversity led programmes

• Covid-19 response including building local infrastructure, digital skills, re-opening and audience building

Who Can Apply

Small/mid-sized not-for-profit organisations with an annual income of less than £500,000, or individual residents, working across, or within, the four Olympic boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

Applicants must:

• Be a not-for-profit organisation that is formally constituted i.e. has a signed governing document in the group’s name, or an individual with a named organisation willing to act as your accountable body.

This includes unincorporated associations and community groups, registered charities, social enterprises, schools, Community Interest Companies (CIC),

Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIO), companies limited by guarantee and faith groups where the project clearly does not promote a particular religious or political view

• Have an annual income of less than £500,000 per annum, but priority will be given to small grassroots organisations

• If you are an individual applying you must be based in one of the four boroughs

• Be connected with and meeting the needs of the local communities in the London Boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest

• Have good financial management procedures, including a record of income and expenditure

• Have a bank account in the name of the organisation, with at least two unrelated cheque signatories

• Have a comprehensive safeguarding policy in place if working with children and young people under the age of 18 or vulnerable adults

• Have a commitment to, or are working towards, London Living Wage where possible Foundation for Future London actively encourages applications from individuals or organisations led by and for Black, Asian and minority ethnic residents, LGBTQIA+ residents, disability communities and organisations that are representative of the diverse communities we support.

What We Will and Won’t Fund

You can apply for funding to cover project activities and staffing, running costs related to the project and the purchase of equipment you need to deliver your activities.

We can fund a mix of project activities, operating costs and organisational development but all costs must directly relate to the proposed activities.

The Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund will not fund:

• Expenditure or activities that have already taken place

• Religious or political activity (we are able to fund religious organisations if they are providing benefit to the wider community)

• Services that are a statutory responsibility (i.e. are the responsibility of the Council, Government or Health Authorities)

• Projects or activities that have no community or charitable element

• Foreign travel

How to Apply

The Fund opened on 19th August, and the deadline for applications is 12 noon on Monday 28th September 2020.

You can submit applications at any time before the application deadline and if you have any questions or would like to talk to the Grants Team please email us on grants@eastendcf.org we’re happy to help.

You can also contact us if you need a paper application form to complete.

Please note that individuals must have a sponsor organisation in place to receive the grant. Further information is provided within the Supporting Documents section below.

Supporting Documents

Organisations

To enable us to consider your application you must attach relevant supporting documents to your application. You can send these by email to grants@eastendcf.org. All documents must be submitted before the application deadline and your application may not be considered if supporting documents are missing.

Please ensure you have the following documents ready to submit:

• Constitution or articles of association

• Approved accounts or a record of income and expenditure for the organisation

• One bank statement dated within the last 3-months evidencing the organisation’s account details

• Equality & Diversity Policy

• Safeguarding Policy

Individuals

If you are applying as an individual or non-registered group, you must include your relevant experience in your application.

Furthermore, you must provide 2 professional references who can vouch for your

work. You will need to identify a constituted organisation to act as your accountable body or ‘parent organisation’. For example, this could be a local charity, constituted TRA or housing association that is willing to hold the grant money on your behalf.

Please contact the EECF Grants Team if you need support in identifying a local group.

Monitoring & Evaluation

If your application is successful you must be able to spend the funds within 12-months of the grant being awarded.

You will need to keep and provide the following:

• Financial records of how the grant is spent, including receipts and invoices

• Records and evidence of the identified outputs e.g. number of people benefiting, number of sessions, audience numbers, records of attendance etc.

• Records of the identified outcomes e.g. the difference the project has made to participants, participant feedback, staff observations, external reports from partners

• Anything that your organisation has learned from delivering the activities

• Photographs and videos of the project activities (if appropriate)

• A case story from at least one participant

It is important to gather information throughout the duration of your activities. These pieces of information must be submitted in an end of grant report.

The contribution of Foundation for Future London/Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund must be acknowledged in any promotional literature or annual report issued on your behalf within twelve months of receiving the grant or any instalment of the grant. We reserve the right to use any photographs or details of the project in any future literature and/or promotion.