The council website does have some hidden treasure in it. It’s just a matter of doing a lot of patient digging.
In the latest report published on the site about business in Croydon, full of the usual old lather about what a great job is being done in bringing new businesses to the borough, there is the following notice about the London Councils Community Grants Programme.
It was buried deep, so might be easy for volunteer groups to miss. The programme is offering grants of up to £12,000 for probably at least seven or eight local grassroots voluntary and community organisations who can demonstrate that they are helping the long-term unemployed get back into work by assisting with their skills and training.
The requirements of the scheme may make it difficult to unlock the funding, but Inside Croydon would be interested to hear from any organisations who may not have known about this scheme before, and how they get along in applying for the cash (email: insidecroydon@btinternet.com).
The notice says:
The Programme is co-financed by London Councils and the European Social Fund (ESF).
Up to £12,000 is available to support each project which should run for a maximum of seven months. Croydon Council has committed £50,000 which has been matched by the
ESF giving a total of £100,000 available to local organisations over a three year period.60% of participants in these projects are expected to be economically inactive and the
remaining 40% unemployed. Activities must focus on:
- Support to raise basic skills;
- Taster work experience, including voluntary work;
- Assistance with job seeking;
- Confidence building;
- Support with accessing services.
Each client should progress towards active engagement with the labour market, aiming
to be in work within six weeks of leaving the programme.The programme will only fund organisations that are not for profit and have an annual income of less than £67,000 a year, in order to support local groups that may find it hard to bid in larger funding schemes.
For more information please contact Laura McRoberts, 020 8604 7053.
- Inside Croydon: brought to you from the heart of the borough, free of charge, an independent voice standing for freedom of speech for the people of Croydon
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