Grant News

Near Neighbours Small Grants Fund (England)

Local groups and organisations, who are working to bring together neighbours and develop relationships across diverse faiths and ethnicities to improve their communities can apply for grants of £500 to £4,000 from the Near Neighbours fund. The fund operates in specific areas of Birmingham, East London, Lancashire, Leicester, Luton and West Yorkshire.   Areas served by a local Near Neighbours Hub.

Near Neighbours has two key objectives: 

▪ Social interaction - to develop positive relationships in multi-faith and multi-ethnic areas i.e. to help people from different faiths and ethnicities get to know and understand each other better.

▪ Social action - to encourage people of different faiths and of no faith and of different ethnicities to come together for initiatives that improve their local neighbourhood.

To be eligible for funding, a project should:

  • Bring together peoples of two or more different faiths and/or ethnicities, to build friendships and develop relationships of trust.
  • Work locally: Near Neighbours want to see people living very locally (i.e. in the same street, estate or neighbourhood).
  • Work sustainably: Near Neighbours want to see long-term and natural relationships grow, which will last beyond the funding period.
  • Work to improve the community: Near Neighbours want to see people working to make their communities a better place to live.
  • Involve a diverse group of people in planning and implementation: People from more than one faith group and/or ethnicity are involved in running the project.

Grants awarded in the past have offered funding to a broad range of work; environmental, social, cultural, artistic, and sporting, which furthers the programme's aims to encourage social interaction and social action.

Applications can be submitted at any time and funding decisions are usually made within 14 days.  The final closing date is the 9th December 2022.

 

Useful Links:

Eligible areas

18th October 2022