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Funding Opportunites in August

We hope all our readers are having a wonderful summer and enjoying the great British weather, when it’s being kind to us! This month we kick off the e-bulletin with some available community funding streams.

NFU Mutual Charitable Trust

The NFU Mutual Charitable Trust was set up in 1998, to promote and support charities in the United Kingdom working in agriculture, rural development and insurance.

The Trust focuses on providing funding to larger initiatives, which would have a significant impact on the rural community. The Trustees are particularly interested in initiatives in the areas of education of young people in rural areas and relief of poverty within rural areas.

The Trustees meet twice a year to consider applications received. These meetings are currently held in June and November.

Applications for the November meeting must be submitted by 29th October 2021.

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme – Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport

The Government is providing up to £210m worth of voucher funding as immediate help for people suffering from slow broadband speeds in rural areas.

Vouchers worth up to £1,500 for homes and £3,500 for businesses help to cover the costs of installing gigabit broadband to people’s doorsteps.

The new UK Gigabit Voucher launched in April 2021 and is only available through a supplier who is registered with the scheme.

You can check whether your premises is eligible for a voucher, find a list of registered suppliers, and see those who are active in your area on the link above.

Charity & community project grants – People’s Postcode Lottery

The aim of the organisations listed below is to support smaller charities and good causes in different parts of the country to make a difference to their community for the benefit of people and planet.

Players of People’s Postcode Lottery have funded good causes in every postcode area in Britain.

Ocado Foundation Grants Programme

Deadline: 31 December 2021
Grants programme for UK charities and community groups, with BizGive offering grants of up to £1,000 to successful applicants, with in-kind goods also available on request and applications for digital volunteering also accepted.

Morrisons Foundation

Charities registered in the UK can apply for grants from the newly established Morrison’s Foundation. The Foundation is looking to award approximately £2 million a year for charity projects which make a positive difference in local communities; in the main grants are available to fully fund projects of up to £25,000

Tesco Community Grants

Tesco Community Grants is always open for applications from charities and community organisations to bid for up to £1,500. Three projects in 575 local communities are voted on by customers in Tesco stores throughout the UK, with projects changing every three months.

Community News from around Berkshire

Bracknell Forest;

Plan For Success This Autumn With Community Learning. Check out the range of work skills courses planned for autumn by Bracknell Forest Adult and Community Learning. Based at Bracknell Open Learning Centre, the new programme offers a range of accredited courses in subjects such as business and customer service, as well as maths, English and IT. Alongside these are courses in health and safety, developing risk assessments and working in care, in addition to classes to support goal setting, motivation and understanding stress. With a changing job market and the challenges we face as we emerge from the pandemic, looking after our well-being and making sure that our skills are up to date is vital. Adult learning courses will also run through the summer break with opportunities to take part in a Well-being Week, support in developing CVs and covering letters and help with interview skills. Visit their website to enrol on the new courses, or to find out more about any of the opportunities on offer.

Wokingham Borough

Friendly Coffee Morning. Weds 15th September, 11am at Easthampstead Works. Everyone is welcome to attend this free social event, to meet new, local people and enjoy great snacks and refreshments. Funds will be raised to go towards Citizen's Advice East Berkshire, to support their work helping local people.

Training courses from Wokingham Borough Council Adult Community Learning

A wide variety of courses available for adults (over 19 years as of 31st August 2021) and residing in Wokingham Borough - everything from coding for Beginners to Yoga for Wellbeing. For further information on courses available and how to book please click here.

Wokingham: Local Climate Emergency Annual Review

The climate emergency action plan was created as a result of the council declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and outlines the actions needed to help Wokingham Borough on its journey to becoming net zero carbon. The council has undertaken a number of projects over the past 12 months to reduce carbon emissions. These include installing new electric vehicle charging points, increasing the amount of paper and cardboard recycled by introducing waterproof recycling bags, planning and constructing its first net zero carbon building with the new Dinton Activity Centre and spoken to businesses and schools in a series of online events.

The priorities to be agreed for next year include progressing the plans for the Barkham solar farm, the local plan update which includes ambitious climate change policies, development of the electric vehicle strategy and determining next steps for the cycling/walking infrastructure. Click here to read more

Royal Borough

Community Repair Café. Saturday 11th September, 10am at Maidenhead Library. A repair café is a volunteer-run event where repair coaches help visitors to fix their beloved but broken item and extend its life. It emphasise the importance of fixing things that are broken, rather than throwing them away, for the sake of helping the environment and money.

Slough

Time to get active again!

Many of us have retreated and been unable to exercise. As lockdown has eased there are activities that have opened up in local leisure and community centres. It is never too late to become more active and resume exercise:

Langley Leisure Centre

Aqua Aerobics: Thursday 09:30am, Friday 09:30am, Friday 7:45pm £5.55 for Over 67’s or £7.35 for Under 67’s

Swimming: Tuesdays 09:30 – 10:30 & 10:30 – 11:30 Free swim (over 60’s) Thursdays 10:30 – 11:30am £2 Swim (Over 60’s)

The Centre Swimming: Monday, 14:00-14:50 £2 swim (Over 60’s) Thursday, 11:30-12:20 free swim (Over 60’s)

Slough Ice Arena Young at Heart Ice skating sessions: Tues & Thursday, 10:30am, £10.35 (Includes tea/coffee). You must be able to skate.

For more information visit Slough Everyone Active

West Berkshire

Berkshire Youth Deliver Wellbeing Programme for Students

Berkshire Youth have teamed up with coaching organisation Aspire 2Be to deliver a Wellbeing Programme for students across West Berkshire secondary schools responding to young people's concerns about mental health, highlighted in Berkshire Youth's 2021 Youth Survey

The Wellbeing Programme was most recently delivered at Theale Green School and The Downs School, Compton. See it in action here

The programme is co-funded by Greenham Trust and Berkshire Community Foundation and you can read more about it here.

Reading:

Reading Town Meal Saturday 25 September 2021

The biggest ‘picnic in the park’ returns to Reading (Covid permitting)

It brings together food, music, community stalls, workshops and local producers. It’s a fantastic celebration of local food sustainability.

You can be part of this by volunteering or growing produce. Or just come along to enjoy food prepared and served by Reading College catering students, made from locally grown fruit and vegetables.

Don’t miss out! Reading Town Meal helps to make Reading a special place.

Showcase your work through CCB!

We would like to raise awareness of the work of organisations working in and within communities in Berkshire. We are asking for local groups and organisations to send us their photos - photos that encompass or signify the work you do or the difference you make within Berkshire's communities. We will share as many as we can on social media. (Links to our accounts at end of this newsletter - please like and follow us!) and via other digital communications to showcase and raise awareness of the amazing work that is happening throughout our wonderful county.

By sending us the photo's you are agreeing for us to use these images for this purpose. Please also remember to send us your full organisation name, any social media handles and confirmation that you have appropriate permission to use the image. A brief description of the activity would also be helpful. There is no deadline for photos, please send them asap or when you have them to gemma.pearce@ccberks.org.uk

Eden Project Virtual Community Camp

People from across the UK can now apply to take part in a Community Camp, delivered by educational and environmental charity The Eden Project, in partnership with the National Lottery.

The Community Camp brings people who care about community together virtually, to share, connect and learn from each other’s recent experiences and to build confidence to take small steps to do good things where they live. Community Camp is two days of joy, learning, inspiration and sharing with the aim that participants will grow confidence, friendship and support that remains long after the camp has ended. It is a completely free experience, thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund and will take place on the 1 & 2 October 2021.

Community Camp is an immersive learning experience, offering a mix of practical activities, workshop sessions and networking opportunities for people from across the UK and is suitable for volunteers and groups alike.

Social Media Masterclass for Charities

Tuesday 14 September 10am to 12.30pm Online

This interactive workshop, with Claire Burdett, award-winning MD of The Media Marketing Co, will help you understand how to use social media to raise awareness of your charity and encourage support, with practical tools and strategies to increase engagement and get it visible online.

Why attend this masterclass?

One of the toughest challenges for charities is how to make social media marketing work for them. Social media is all about people being social, and stiff posts and PR announcements are easily ignored, the algorithms keep changing, and it all takes so much time for what is often very low rewards. However, not being on social media isn’t an option for most, because that’s where people spend most of their time. So what do you do?

For further details please click here.

Rural Focus

Levelling Up Rural Britain

Launched at NFU21, Levelling Up Rural Britain highlights how British farming and rural communities can provide the solution to many of the challenges the nation faces by driving sustainable food production and pioneering food policy that produces carbon-neutral food. Very much worth a read, to download your copy please click here.

Rural Crime - figure released from NFU Mutual - Cost of theft lower, but increase in fly-tipping and dog attacks.

New figures from the NFU Mutual reveal that the cost of rural theft in 2020 reduced by 20%, partly due to the pandemic and lockdowns, but that incidents of fly-tipping and dog attacks on livestock continued to increase.

The report showed that:

• Rural theft cost an estimated £43.3 million last year, the lowest annual cost recorded in five years.

• The cost of GPS theft almost doubled, rising to £2.9 million.

• Dog attacks rose by 50% in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020.

To read the rest of this article please click here

Connecting Rural Communities in Berkshire

We need your help and feedback to have a greater understanding of how digitally connected Berkshire’s rural communities currently are.

CCB are really interested in learning about how easy it is to get access to affordable and reliable digital services, skills and devices.

We are keen to hear about community initiatives that help people that don’t have access to the internet to get online, such as Wi-Fi in public spaces, and projects that help people develop new digital skills and confidence in safely using digital tools and devices.

To help us gain a greater understand of whether your rural community is well digitally connected or not it would REALLY help us if you could please spend a couple of minutes completing our very short survey; https://forms.gle/NAhw5sumH1aG9uFt9

Berkshire Community Buildings

21st Village Hall Project Goes Live on The Good Exchange!

Almost everyone has fond memories of sharing crucial life events (christenings, birthdays, anniversarys etc) at their local Village Hall or maybe attending a local exercise group, fete, coffee morning or panto. Our village halls and community buildings are key community assets that can bring people together in moments of crisis (emergencies, floods, vaccine centres, food banks etc) and we att CCB are passionate about supporting their management committees and trustees to ensure that they can remain viable, safe and thriving centres of their community.

Our 21st Village Hall Project has just gone live on the Good Exchange and we would like our readers help to raise awareness of the project and the benefits it will bring Berkshire’s community buildings. The project will support Berkshire Village Halls to focus on connectivity, buildings, environments and succession planning. We are very excited to have already attracted match funding from Greenham Trust Ltd, so if you’d like to make a pledge of support they will match if £1 for £1, up to £5000. For further details of the project ambitions and to make a pledge please click here.

Revised Information Sheet for opening village & community halls in Berkshire

Village and community halls are now able to open their doors and are looking forward to helping their communities get back together for a wide range of events and activities.

Recently our national body ACRE issued a briefing note that provided recommendations for taking steps to keep vulnerable residents safe, whether that be maintaining well-ventilated spaces or encouraging users to wear face masks

ACRE’s Information Sheet on Opening Village Halls has now been updated and version 11 has just beed released along with a set of Appendices. Notes of the changes can be found on pages 1 & 2 of the Information Sheet. Any help and support needed can be provided by our Community Buildings Advisor, Kate, who has been working hard to support hall committees through the ups and downs of changing legislation since March 2020. Kate.Meads@ccberks.org.uk

Re-opening Information Sheet V.11 July 2021Download