We know that older people can be particularly lonely and isolated over holiday periods. Time to Shine will be working with Leeds Community Foundation to make grants to community groups addressing seasonal loneliness over the Christmas holidays 2019 and the summer holidays 2020. This is not just about Christmas Day, for example, but seeks to involve people at any time during these holiday periods when other activity and support often stops and family and friends may be away.
Who can apply?
Community groups, charities, social enterprises or other charitable organisations from the third sector that:
- Have a constitution or other relevant governance document
- Have a management committee/board of directors/trustees of at least three unrelated people
- Have a bank account under the name of the group with at least two unrelated signatories (if your organisation doesn’t have its own bank account, but does meet all of the other criteria, please contact us to discuss how we can work around this)
- Are based in or supporting people living in the Leeds Metropolitan District area
If the programme is heavily oversubscribed, we will give priority to smaller, locally rooted groups.
Size of Grant
The minimum request is £500. The maximum is £2,500.
What can the Fund support?
The fund will support one-off events or community activities, including those that are intergenerational and whole-community based, which bring people together to experience and enjoy each other’s company at these important and potentially more lonely times, with the ultimate aim to reduce loneliness and isolation amongst older people.
We are looking for:
- projects that bring a new way of working into your organisation to address needs of those socially isolated older people who find it hardest to access support due to geography; mobility; culture or other factors
- activity that increases resilience or builds networks which enable older people to increase their social opportunities and networks
- applications that show that they are addressing a specific need in their community and that there is demand for their services
- projects which are proactive and work with other organisations to refer and signpost to enable people to access a wider range of support
- projects which involve older people. Older people are at the heart of everything that happens in Time to Shine so we would encourage projects to think widely about their involvement in all elements of your project: from design to delivery and evaluation
- projects which consider how they contribute to a change in societal attitudes and behaviours towards older people, leading to reduced social isolation by making it everybody’s business to do so.
Types of activities that can be funded
We expect to fund a wide variety of one-off events and short projects addressing loneliness over the holiday periods. This might include things like:
- an intergenerational Christmas lunch, bringing together older people with young people
- a Hanukkah celebration bringing older people together
- a summer trip to the seaside for older people who might not get a summer holiday
- intergenerational arts and craft sessions over August, when children are on school holidays and many older-peoples groups take a break due to lack of volunteers.
These are just a few examples: we’re sure you can think of many more which address the needs in your local area.
When can you apply?
The fund is open from 23 July 2019. The deadline to apply is 12.00 noon on 5 September 2019.
Funding will be awarded in October, so that delivery can take place during the periods 22 December 2019 to 1 January 2020 and/or 1 August 2020 to 31 August 2020.
How do you apply for a grant?
Complete an online application form available from Leeds Community Foundation’s website, where you can also see full details including exclusions and what other information you will need to supply.
We expect this programme to be highly oversubscribed so we strongly recommend you also seek alternative sources of funding for your project to avoid disappointment.