Information Centre - Funding

The BHF National Centre for Physical Activity and Health aims to provide information on potential sources of funding for physical activity related projects.

Details of current funding sources and funding that has been awarded to organisations or projects are provided below.

Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund, England

The green paper Youth Matters, published by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in 2005, proposed that a discrete amount of resource should be provided through a Youth Opportunity Fund which young people could control, deciding how to spend the money in their area. Youth Matters also proposed a Youth Capital Fund aimed at enabling local authorities to develop new approaches to strategic investment in youth facilities, particularly in deprived neighbourhoods. The involvement of young people, especially disadvantaged young people, is central to this initiative. The extra resource for the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund was launched in the Chancellor's pre-budget report in December 2005. 

There is a total of £115m available for both funds over 2006-08:

• £31m per year for the Youth Opportunity Fund
• £26.5m per year for the Youth Capital Fund

The aim of the Youth Opportunity Fund is to involve young people, especially those who are hard to reach, in identifying positive activities and things to do, and to support their role as decision makers, grant givers and project leaders. They should be encouraged to consider local needs and circumstances as a part of their role in shaping provision for young people beyond their immediate group.

The aim of the Youth Capital Fund is to provide a discrete capital budget for a two year period to be spent on what young people want. It is designed to work in tandem with the Youth Opportunity Fund. Arrangements for implementing the Youth Capital Fund should allow for the active involvement of young people in decisions about how the money will be spent,  with particular emphasis on those who are disadvantaged. They should be involved in all aspects of planning, delivery, monitoring and the evaluation of the Youth Capital Fund.

Both funds aim to:

• Give a voice to young people, particularly disadvantaged young people, in relation to things to do and places to go, conveying a powerful message to young people that their needs and aspirations are important;
• Change the way that local authorities and their partners provide activities and facilities for young people, especially in deprived neighbourhoods, increasing the responsiveness of providers to what young people want;
• Improve things to do and places to go in line with what young people want in their neighbourhoods;
• Provide opportunities for young people to develop their confidence, knowledge, skills and abilities, gaining recognition and accreditation;
• Increase the well-being of young people;
• Increase young people's engagement with services and with the democratic process at local level.

 For more information and examples of projects that have been funded in the past, visit
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/strategy/youthfund

Parks for People, England

Parks for People is a 3 year joint initiative between Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) which aims to help with the restoration and regeneration of public parks and gardens, including squares, walks and promenades in England. Funding for parks in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will offer the same opportunities and use the same assessment processes as in England, but will be managed solely by the HLF. For this grant programme, the term “public park” means an existing designed urban or rural green space, the main purpose of which is for informal recreation and enjoyment. It includes parks, gardens, squares, walks and promenades.

Organisations can apply through this programme for funding to restore and regenerate parks and gardens if:

- the project is concerned with a public park;
- they are a not-for-profit organisation;
- they need a grant of between £250,000 and £5 million (including development grant).

Organisations will also need to demonstrate that:

- the community values the park as part of their heritage;
- the parks meets local social, economic and environmental needs;
- the park actively involves local people.

The funders assess applications using a two-stage process. They make decisions at stage one in competitive batches twice a year. Closing dates are 31 March and 30 September. Organisations can apply for a grant of between £250,000 and £5million. Project Planning Grants of up to £50,000 are also available. Applicants will need to raise at least 25% of project costs from other sources, either as cash or non-cash contributions (as partnership funding). At least 5% of this partnership funding must be cash from the organisation’s own resources.

For more information, visit www.hlf.org.uk/English/HowToApply/OurGrantGivingProgrammes/Parks%2Bfor%2BPeople/

Foyle Foundation, UK

The Foyle Foundation is an independent grant making trust that distributes grants to UK charities whose core work is in the areas of Learning, the Arts and Health. Since it became operational in November 2001 The Foundation has already awarded over £18.3m in grants. The Foundation's primary aim is to support UK charities whose core remit covers Learning, the Arts or Health. International projects are not supported. The majority of grants made by the Trustees range between £10,000 and £50,000. In the areas of health, the Foundation supports applications linked to a known medical condition. The Foundation funds projects or core work that makes an active contribution to improved health care. Smaller health charities, including those for rare or distressing conditions will be favoured. The Foundation will also support smaller research projects from time to time, where the outcome is expected to translate quickly into improved healthcare. Advocacy, counselling or general support services such as information distribution or telephone help lines will not generally be supported. There are no deadlines and applications are accepted all year round, but organisations should apply at least six months before funding is required, if not sooner. Due to the volume of applications received it may take up to four months or more for applications to receive a decision from the Trustees.

Examples of previous grants awarded include:

• £20, 000 to CORDA to maintain the research team staff investigating the early stages of cardiovascular disease;
• £10, 000 to Basic towards the purchase of nine assisted exercise machines to aid physiotherapy.
  

For more information visit www.foylefoundation.org.uk

Opportunities for Volunteering: National Agents, England

There are a number of national charities that distribute grants as part of the Department of Health's Opportunities For Volunteering (OFV) scheme. These charities are known as National Agents. Every year approximately £6.9 million is distributed to over 300 projects in England. The focus of these projects is to involve volunteers in the delivery of health and social care services. OFV is a partnership between the government and the voluntary and community sector. It uses the expertise of the voluntary and community sector at a local and national level to enable local people to meet need and create change within their own communities. OFV grants range from £2,000 to £35,000. They are distributed to local community organisations and projects by 16 national organisations known as National Agents. The Agents play a key role in the success of the scheme, assessing and monitoring grants and providing development support to the projects they fund.

Examples of projects which have been awarded funding in the past include:

 - £25,000 from RADAR for the English Federation of Disability Sport to develop physical activity and promote awareness of health issues for disabled people.

 - £39,351 from bassac for a teenage health project to train a group of volunteers who will use group peer education skills to enable teenagers to improve their lifestyles and provide an information
service on aspects of teenage health

 - £21,515 from Barnardo’s to Hamara Inclusive Sport and Leisure Opportunities (HISLOP), Walthamstow (Barnardo’s) to enable access for young disabled people aged 14 to 19 to leisure and sports activities in Waltham Forest.

For more information, visit
www.dh.gov.uk/AboutUs/HowDHWorks/DHRecruitment/DHRecruitmentArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4123259&chk=irazhM

£15m pedal power boost for greener, safer, healthier travel

The Department for Transport (DfT) are providing new funding for school travel, which aims to offer more choice to parents on the school run and children who want to cycle, by announcing an additional £15m for cycling initiatives. The new investment, which doubles the budget for Cycling England aims to provide:

• More money for the cycling Links to Schools project, which ties in schools to the wider 10,000 miles of the National Cycling Network, reducing the need for school children to cycle on busy roads. 70% of the links to schools built by the end of 2005 were off-road;
• Funding to support the new more rigorous cycling proficiency test fit for the 21st century not the 1970s. Potentially training a further 100,000 children to a new, tougher standard including on-road training.

For more information, visit
www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=210189&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=False

Big Lottery Fund's School Sports Co-ordinator programme

The Big Lottery Fund has provided an additional £9,244,990 as the final tranche of the Fund's £34 million School Sports Co-ordinators scheme. The aim of the scheme is to motivate young people through physical exercise, improving their health and contributing to increased self-esteem, a greater skill range and an improved ability to work co-operatively with each other. It will particularly benefit children in danger of exclusion from school, those who need encouragement to participate and young people with special needs.

The £9 million will create 96 innovative physical activity programmes across England as follows:

For more information, visit www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=213320&NewsAreaID=2

The Well-being Programmes, Big Lottery Fund (England)

The Well-being programme from the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) will provide funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being. The programme will have up to £165 million available, £45 million of which is committed to supporting healthy eating for children, parents and the wider community. To deliver this programme, the BLF is seeking to appoint a number of organisations who will each deliver a portfolio of projects in England.

The programme aims to:

• support communities in greatest need to create healthier lifestyles and improved wellbeing;
• to encourage approaches to health and well-being that make sustainable connections between mental health, physical activity and healthy eating;
• to promote partnership working between organisations within the health sector and across other sectors to increase participation and innovation and encourage a joined up approach.

It will focus on three areas: mental health; physical activity; and healthy eating and aims to bring about the following changes through funding projects:

• improved mental well-being in people and communities;
• people being more physically active in their daily lives and in their communities;
• children, parents and the wider community eating more healthily.

Grant applications will be for a minimum of £1 million. Grants can be made for a minimum of two years and a maximum of five years.

For more information, visit

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/programmes/well_being/index.htm

Investing in Communities Fund, Big Lottery Fund (Scotland)

The Big Lottery Fund in Scotland has £257 million to spend between 2006 and 2009. They want to invest this money to bring real improvements to communities and to the lives of people most in need. They will make their investment in social change in Scotland in four different ways. They will invest in:

• Growing Community Assets through which we will help communities become stronger by acquiring or developing assets for their own use;
• Dynamic Inclusive Communities through which we will help build stronger more vibrant communities;
• Life Transitions through which we will support projects that help people deal with change in their lives and encourage them to move on;
• Supporting 21st Century Life through which we will invest in projects that enable people to cope with new patterns of life and the pace of change communities are experiencing.

A wide range of groups can apply including charities, voluntary and community groups, local authorities, social enterprises or health boards. The BLF expect most of the grants they make to be between £10,000 and £1 million. If you are interested in applying complete the simple outline proposal form telling them about your idea and your group. If they think you should apply they will provide you with feedback, application materials and advise which area of investment your project best fits.

For more information, contact BLF funding advisors on 0870 240 2391 or visit

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/programmes/investingcomms/index.htm

BASIS, Big Lottery Fund (England)

The BASIS programme from the Big Lottery Fund (BLF) aims to improve the infrastructure support available to all voluntary and community sector organisations in England. It is aimed at voluntary or community organisations whose main or only purpose is to support the work of other voluntary and community organisations. Organisations can apply for up to £500,000 for capital and revenue costs for projects lasting up to five years. Applications for larger amounts will be considered for projects working across England or across several regions.
The BLF particularly want the programme to deal with the following key issues:

• helping organisations to increase the financial and other resources open to them, including through support in fundraising and financial management;
• improving knowledge and skills in organisational and project planning and management;
• helping organisations to have more influence on local and national policies relevant to their work;
• supporting trustees and ensuring that organisations are run efficiently and accountably;
• promoting networking and sharing of knowledge and skills.

For more information, visit

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/programmes/basis/index.htm

Connecting Communities Plus (England)

Connecting Communities Plus is a grants programme designed to support practical action to help achieve the goals set out in Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society, the government's strategy to increase race equality and improve community cohesion. The programme follows the existing Connecting Communities grant programme which finished in March 2006. The grants will facilitate tailored initiatives to meet the specific needs of disadvantaged communities. Community Grants are aimed at locally run and managed voluntary and community organisations with an income of less than £50,000 per year, run by volunteers or with one full time or two part time paid staff. The total value of the fund is £1,000,000, with a maximum grant value of  £12,000.

Or more information, contact the Community Development Foundation on 01223 400 343, email ccplus@cdf.org.uk or visit the website at www.cdf.org.uk