Ben Everitt, the MP for Milton Keynes North, is encouraging voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations in Milton Keynes to check if they could benefit from a new £76 million fund announced by the Government.
The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund will provide grants of up to £75,000 to critical frontline services in this financial year and will focus on those organisations delivering core subsistence-level provision around food, warmth, shelter, safety and associated advice.
The investment is intended to ensure that frontline charities and community organisations can meet increased demand and offer better outcomes for low income households and individuals who are struggling with rising costs due to the impact of Putin's war in Ukraine and the aftermath of the pandemic.
You can find more information on the fund below:
Information
You can apply for between £10,000 and £75,000. If you need £10,000 or less you could try the National Lottery Awards for All fund.
To apply your organisation must already run critical services around at least one of the following:
- food and emergency supplies – like food and baby banks or the provision of hot meals, clothes or toiletries
- emergency shelter – like night shelters or other accommodation for people experiencing homelessness
- safe spaces – like domestic abuse services and youth services
- warmth – like warm rooms and spaces
- financial and housing advice – like giving people advice because of the increased cost of living.
Your organisation must also be facing both
- increased demand for these critical services
and
- increased costs of delivering these critical services
They are more likely to fund small and medium-sized front-line organisations
With an annual turnover of between £10,000 and around £1 million.
Larger organisations can also apply if they do both of the following:
- show that they work closely and effectively with local communities
- fill a gap in essential local services.
You can get funding to pay for:
- costs of delivering, expanding or adapting your existing critical service(s) from the date you are funded until 31 March 2024. The date you are funded will be around 12 weeks from the time you submitted your application.
- retrospective costs of running the existing critical service(s) you’re applying for between 24 July 2023 and the date you are funded.
The deadline for applications is 16 October 2023 at 12 noon.
