Reading Health Champions and Vaccine Fund – deadline extended to 8 April 2022

Organisation
Reading Borough Council (RBC)
Article date
9 March 2022
Primary interest
Voluntary sector

Deadline Extended – the Reading Health Champions and Vaccine Fund now closes on 8 April 2022

You know your communities best

Could your organisation benefit from a grant and help give a voice to Reading residents disproportionately affected by health inequalities?

Reading Borough Council wants to support the activities of local charities, voluntary, community, faith, sport, art, cultural, uniformed (scouts, guides etc) schools and not-for-profit groups. We would very much like to receive applications from groups that interact with our seldom-heard residents. We need to hear their voices. Grants of up to £5,000 can be awarded for:

  • Local ‘one off’ and small projects
  • Running events
  • Minor start-up costs (e.g. to get a new idea/project ‘off the ground’)
  • Running costs such as hall hire and staff capacity
  • Purchasing equipment
  • Sessional costs

This list isn’t exhaustive, if you meet the criteria outlined below, please apply. If your group has applied for a grant before and were unsuccessful please don’t be discouraged. If you meet the grant criteria please apply. Your organisation and the relationships you have with residents is important in addressing health inequalities in Reading. By applying for a grant and helping to give seldom-heard residents a voice, your work can make a real difference.

Detailed guidance (also available on the RBC website here)

Reading Borough Council has allocated £50k for grants to the voluntary and community sector for the period from April 2022 to July 2022 from the ‘Reading Community Health Champions and Vaccine Programme’.

The funding is to support local residents disproportionately affected by barriers to vaccination and to address health inequalities. The funding can be used to support the infrastructure and/or additional capacity needed by voluntary and community organisations to expand their existing work or to deliver new projects.

The council is inviting applications for funding that support the following grant criteria:
  • Bids to increase or improve existing work with Reading residents disproportionately affected by barriers to vaccination, including Covid-19.
  • Projects to address misinformation about vaccine safety, including Covid-19 and increase trust in/reach of official public health messaging.
  • Projects that will support Reading residents to access vaccines such as the Covid-19 vaccine and booster, the flu vaccine and the MMR vaccine.
What can you apply for?

Grants of up to £5,000 to support the infrastructure and/or additional capacity needed by organisations to expand existing service, deliver services in a different way or to develop new services.

Who can apply?

The grants programme is aimed at voluntary and community groups based in Reading borough:

  • Charitable organisations
  • Voluntary organisations
  • Constituted community groups
  • Faith groups
  • Sports groups
  • Arts groups
  • Cultural organisations
  • Uniformed groups (e.g. scouts, guides)
  • Schools
  • Not-for-profit social enterprises
What will be funded?
  • The funding is available to support the infrastructure and/or additional capacity needed by voluntary and community organisations to expand existing services, deliver services in a different way or to develop new activities. Funding can be used towards running costs such as hall hire or staff capacity.
  • You know your communities best. We want this funding to support activities that are right for your community. They should be activities that benefit people beyond the life of the project, for example, in terms of skills gained, increased knowledge, confidence, relationships built. The activities/initiatives should be focused on areas of greatest need.
  • We are particularly interested in bids that target groups disproportionately affected by barriers to receiving a Covid-19 vaccine or booster/misinformation and the most vulnerable and seldom heard residents in Reading.
  • Projects that will be run in local community centres and will therefore be providing additional support to the local community will be considered favourably.
  • Grants can be awarded for purposes such as: Local ‘one off’ and small projects; Running events; Minor start-up costs (e.g. to get a new idea/project ‘off the ground’); Running costs such as hall hire and staff capacity; Purchasing equipment; Sessional costs.
  • Funding will only be given to projects or activities that address the grant criteria in the introduction and is not funded or able to be funded through other sources. Applicants will be expected to disclose their other funding sources.
  • Bids that were previously unsuccessful to Reading Borough Council can be resubmitted if they meet this grant criteria.
What should applications include?

Applications will be required to:

  • Show evidence of need in relation to the criteria outlined in the introduction (data, research, community feedback, examples)
  • Demonstrate strong connections with residents and groups from the area of need described
  • Demonstrate the reach and scale of your project- estimates of how many residents will benefit
  • Describe the details of how the grant will be spent
  • State how the work will make a difference and how the described needs will be addressed
  • Provide a realistic delivery plan demonstrating how the majority of the work will be completed by the end of July 2022.
Funding conditions
  • The funding will be required to be spent by 31 July 2022.
  • Monitoring – Successful applicants will be expected to provide a brief interim report on their project after 6 weeks and a full report by the 15 July 2022.
How to apply
  • Applications should be made using the Reading Health Champions and Vaccine Fund 2022 Application Form. You can click ‘continue without an account’ if you don’t want to sign up to the RBC site.
  • The deadline for applications has been extended to Friday 8 April 2022 at 5pm.
  • Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by Friday 15 April 2022 at 5pm.
  • If you have any queries please contact Sarah Hunneman, Public Health and Wellbeing Team. Email: sarah.hunneman@reading.gov.uk or Tel: 0118 9374399.
  • Support from RVA: if you would like further support with submitting a funding application please contact advice@rva.org.uk or telephone 0118 937 2273 for free and independent support and advice.