Hindu Nari Sangh has been awarded Sport Relief Community Cash

The Sport Relief Community Cash programme has so far awarded 52 grants totalling over £45,000 to community and voluntary groups from across Tyne & Wear and Northumberland that help people of all ages feel more included in their community, builds their skills and increase their sense of achievement.

Hindu Nari Sangh was just one group that was awarded £1,000 towards the cost of Bollywood dance classes to raise awareness amongst the local communities of Indian culture.

Shobha Srivastava from Hindu Nari Sangh said:

“We are delighted to have been awarded £1,000 from Sport Relief Relief Community Cash, the young people learn so much about Indian culture at our Bollywood dance classes and really brings them together. Support like this is invaluable to small groups like ours.”

The classes cost just £3.00 and are held every Saturday at the Customs House in South Shields from 10.00am to 11.00am and are open to anyone, regardless of ability who would like to attend. For more information email Shobha Srivastava.

Building Futures East is the type of organisation that could benefit from the Comunity First programme

The Community First endowment match scheme is offering donors the opportunity to increase their donations to endowment funds at the Community Foundation by 50% at no extra cost.

There is Government match available for Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Northumberland. Funds specifically for each area have been established and donations of any size can be made to these, or donors can make larger gifts can set up their own named fund. From the Government pot, the Community Foundation can add £50 to every £100 donated.

For more information contact Lisa Cappleman or click here to visit the website where there is an online donation facility for each area fund.

Since 2003 the Community Foundation has worked with local residents and agencies to allocate £1.6m in Big Lottery Fair Share Trust funding to 28 projects in Seaton Valley and East Ashington.

We are now seeking proposals from suitably qualified individuals or agencies for the evaluation of our work in each area. The Community Foundation envisages that completed evaluations will comprise a substantial and high quality written report and a short film telling the story of Fair Share and its impact.

The value of this contract will be in the region of £15,000 to £20,000 per area. Evaluations must be completed by March 31^st 2013 as a condition of contract.

For a full tender specification please email Mark Pierce, Head of Policy Projects and Programmes.

Final calls for applications are being made from the CNL Young People’s Fund to voluntary and community groups running projects to help disadvantaged young people in Northumberland  to overcome the barriers to a successful transition to adulthood.

Most grants will be in the range of £1,000 to £2,000 with one or two awards of up to £10,000 being made each year. Click here to download more information or to apply online click here. The deadline for applications is 21 May 2012.

Dr Beth Breeze, a prominent academic with an interest in philanthropy is seeking Chief Executives of charitable and voluntary organisations who are willing to complete a short online survey about their donors and beneficiaries.

This research, part of the work of the Centre for Philanthropy and Giving, is an attempt to gather data about the characteristics of both donors and beneficiaries.  It is replicating a similar US study which proved useful and influential.

All responses are confidential, £1 will be donated to Sports Relief for every completed survey, and there will be free access to the final report as thanks for taking part.

To complete the survey, which should take around 5 minutes, click here.

For further information about the Centre for Giving and Philanthropy, click here.

For further information about this survey, please email Dr Beth Breeze.

Children from Walkergate Primary School, Newcastle, with Colin Raistrick from P&G

15 groups on Tyneside and in Northumberland have benefitted from grants totalling over £10,000 from the P&G Fund at the Community Foundation.

Building Futures East in Newcastle was one group that benefitted with a grant of £1,115 towards children’s personal protective equipment. The equipment allows children from local schools to take part in construction workshops that teach them about bricklaying, plastering and other trades, as well as teaching them literacy and numeracy skills in a different environment to the classroom.

Colin Raistrick from the P&G Fund said:

“I had a fantastic time visiting Building Futures East and seeing the children from Walkergate Primary School learning so much about construction. The young people’s learning experience was transformed and it was great to see them using all sorts of tools, building brick chimneys, mixing cement and tidying up! We were delighted to be able to award the grant which has gone towards their protective work gear, without which they would simply not be able to be able to start the course.”

The P&G Fund is now open for applications from community and voluntary groups that support children aged 0-13 on Tyneside and in Northumberland. The deadline for applications is May 25 2012. For more information or to apply online click here.

Castle Morpeth Disability Association in Northumberland received an ESF grant for over 50s employability training

Almost £90,000 has been awarded to 10 community and voluntary groups in the second round of the European Social Fund Community Grants programme.

No Limits Theatre in Sunderland was one organisation that was awarded a grant of over £7,000 towards its “Breaking Barriers” programme that aims to develop a wide range of transferable skills for adults with learning disabilities.

The ESF scheme aims to help unemployed people take steps back towards the workplace and funds community-based groups who can offer employability skills, support and training, with priority for projects for the over 50s, lone parents, people from the BME community, disabled people and women.

Sue Martin, ESF Projects and Programmes Officer at the Community Foundation said:

“The projects that received funding in January are already able to report positive results, with beneficiaries returning to work, applying for interviews, progressing with IT and CV writing skills, and benefiting from personal development programmes, and the latest groups who have received funding will also offer a varied range of opportunities to people from their community.”

The next deadline for applications is 18 September 2012, with awards of up to £12,000 available to groups with an average income of less than £200,000 a year. Click here to find out more and to read the full criteria, or call Sue Martin on 0191 222 0945 to discuss your application.

Paddock Wood Skate Park User Group

A new, state-of-the-art Skate Park is set to be built at Paddock Wood, Ashington, Northumberland thanks to £170,000 grant from the Wansbeck (East Ashington) Fairshare Fund at the Community Foundation.

The grant follows a scoping exercise commissioned by the Community Foundation in February 2011 on behalf of the Wansbeck Fair Share panel. This involved community consultation site visits, meetings with key stakeholders including  Northumberland County Council, North Seaton Community Association, the local Scout Group and young people who are potential users of a skate park in Paddock Wood.  There was overwhelming support for a skate park.

Groundwork North East will be administering the grant and coordinating the works. Gemma Bone from the organisation said:

“It’s so exciting that the skate park is going to be built. It will be such a well-used facility and just what this area needs to give young people a meaningful activity in which they can develop and grow their skills. I really can’t wait to see the finished product and young people whizzing about on their BMXs and skateboards.”

It is hoped that the skate park once completed will help to raise the aspirations of children and young people and enable them to develop their skills and experience and support their progression as part of Fairshare’s objectives. This project also has the potential to bring together the community of North Seaton in the development of Paddock Wood, which has is also bidding to the ‘Transform Your Patch’ programme that could see a new five-a-side pitch built on the site.