The new #iwill fund has opened, offering grants of up to £5,000 to youth social action projects in Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
The money is for projects involving young people in activities such as campaigning, fundraising and volunteering and making a positive difference to their communities.
The #iwill grants programme aims to raise the level and quality of youth social action, which has huge potential to create enjoyable opportunities and skills development for young people, benefitting local people and places. The deadline for applications is 2pm on Friday 16th March 2018.
In total, £40,000 is available locally through the programme, for young people aged 10 to 20 years old – or up to 25 for disabled young people.
The #iwill fund is a national grants programme which Quartet Community Foundation are administering in the West of England.
The Big Lottery Fund and the Office for Civil Society have invested £2 million to fund groups offering local youth social action opportunities.
Local fundraising is also a key part of the #iwill programme, and Quartet is working with local philanthropists to raise match funding to help offer future grant rounds.
Examples of activities that can be funded:
- A drop in where young people teach others new skills such as coding, bike maintenance or nail art (or all three).
- Bite-size events for young people to train an organisation’s staff on the latest social media.
- Teaching young people interview and video editing skills and then supporting young people to carry out interviews and create a set of vox pops videos for the website of a local organisation.
- Growing vegetables at a city farm and then selling them (which builds more skills and relationships than painting the farm’s shed).
Groups applying to Quartet Community Foundation must be working in Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset or South Gloucestershire.
You can read the full list of projects funded previously through the fund here.
To find out more and apply, visit: http://quartetcf.org.uk/grant-programmes/youth-social-action-fund/.
