Know Your Neighbourhood

Please read the Essenital Information before applying. 

Background

The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund is a £14 million programme, which is supporting nine local authority areas in England. The fund is for activities enabling volunteering and tackling loneliness with the primary ambition to develop understanding of what works to improve wellbeing and pride in place in these communities. Funding is provided by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and delivered by local Community Foundations to support charitable organisations working within the local authority areas.

Funding Focus

The four key objectives of the programme are:

• To build the evidence to identify scalable and sustainable place-based interventions that work in increasing regular volunteering and reducing chronic loneliness.
• To increase the proportion of people in targeted disadvantaged local authorities who volunteer at least once a month.
• To reduce the proportion of chronically lonely people in targeted disadvantaged local authorities who lack the desired level of social connections.
• To enable targeted disadvantaged local authorities, and the local voluntary and community sector in these places, to implement sustainable systems and processes that encourage volunteering and tackling loneliness.

Some examples of what the fund can consider are:

 

Encouraging volunteering, increasing volunteer engagement and/or engaging those not currently participating in activities through:

- Skills and confidence development

- Training for volunteers

- Removing barriers to participation

- Volunteer management, recruitment and coordination

 

Reducing the number of people affected by chronic loneliness through:

- Activities that promote social inclusion

- Intergenerational activity

- Befriending sessions

- Mentoring initiatives

 

Defining Chronic Loneliness

 

KYN Fund aims to tackle chronic loneliness and people at risk of chronic loneliness i.e. currently experiencing loneliness, or are in one of the high risk groups for chronic loneliness.

 

High risk groups of chronic loneliness are listed below:

 

• People who identify as LGBT
• Young people (16-34)
• People who recently moved to their current address
• People who live alone
• People in the lowest income quintile
• People with a mental health condition
• People with a disability or long term health condition
• New parents
• People who are unemployed
• People who are widowed
• Groups identified through local knowledge of chronic loneliness

 

What costs can be considered?

The fund is able to consider staffing costs, volunteer costs, activity/operational costs, training costs, small capital items (e.g. equipment, IT). A proportion of organisational overheads can also be considered. DCMS guidelines state they expect ‘administration costs’ to be up to 6% of your total budget request.

 

Any specific criteria?

•       This funding is specifically for community organisations working in Blackpool.
•       Grants must be spent by 31^st March 2025 and no extensions will be granted. Please only apply if you are able to meet that spend deadline. Shorter projects can also be considered. If you received a learning phase 1 grant earlier this year you are able to also apply for a Phase 2 grant
•       Have a management committee with at least 3 unrelated members
•       Be a charity, voluntary organisation, community group or other not for profit organisation
•       Have a bank account in the group’s name (with two unrelated signatories)

 

Important notes about grant payments and evaluation

• Grant payments will be made on a quarterly basis. First quarter payments will be made after the grant offer is accepted and any conditions satisfied. Subsequent payments will be made following receipt of acceptable grant monitoring each quarter until the end of the project. Reporting timetables will be provided with grant awards. We recommend that you ensure you have sufficient cash flow in place to ensure delivery of the project is not negatively impacted by the grant being paid in instalments.
• Further to quarterly reporting, a monthly financial spend update will be required. This is likely to be quite light touch and involve completing an online form. 
• We will commission a local evaluator to support your evaluation. The local evaluator will require access to the people taking part in your project so they can ask them how they are feeling about things like loneliness, wellbeing, skills, confidence and pride in place. The local evaluator will take your advice on the best way to do this. Some examples include via a survey, focus group or interview. The local evaluator will ensure questions are asked in the same way by all projects.

For full information on evaluation requirements for this funding programme, please see the attached guidance notes.

To view the webinar that took place on the 27th March: KYN Fund - Webinar for Prospective Applicants 280423.mp4

Amount available:

There is no minimum or maximum grant amount, though funding must be spent by 31^st March 2025. Grants requested must be a proportional figure and cannot be for more than 50% of your organisation’s annual income.  The total amount available for us to distribute is £1,171,333.

 

What cannot be funded?

•       Purchase or development of buildings or land
•       Individuals
•       Organisations with less than 3 unrelated Trustees/Directors/Management Committee members
•       Projects and activities classed as a statutory responsibility
•       Private businesses or CICs limited by shares
•       Retrospective funding
•       National organisations that cannot demonstrate local governance and control of local finances
•       Politically connected or exclusively religious activities

 

How to apply?

An online application form can be completed via our website www.lancsfoundation.org.uk. You can attach supporting documents to your online application or email them to applications@cflm.org.uk

 

Closing date: Tuesday 30^th May 5pm

 

Please note that decisions will be provided in June.

 

Documents which need to be included with your application:

1. A copy of your governing document

2. A copy of your latest annual accounts or income/expenditure document

3. A copy of a recent bank statement for your group. If you do not have a bank account in place, you must be able to nominate another organisation to hold the funds (CVS, another local charity, church etc.)

4. A list of your Trustees/Directors/Management Committee members. A minimum of three un-related must be in place.

5. A copy of your current Safeguarding Policy. All applicants must ensure that they hold relevant policies and procedures in place to undertake activities, such as Criminal Records Bureau checks and/or a health and safety policy, depending on proposed activity. If unsure, we recommend taking advice from your local CVS

 

If you have applied to us within the last 12 months and already provided this information we do not need you to send it again, although we may require a more recent bank statement.

What happens next?

Completed applications are considered by Community Foundation staff to check eligibility. You may be contacted for more information after applying. Applications will also be reviewed by the programme evaluators and DCMS to provide recommendations to the grants panel who will then make final decisions based on the fund’s criteria and the budget available.

 

Community Foundation for Lancashire

Third Floor

Stanley Buildings

43 Hanover Street

Liverpool

L1 3DN

Telephone: 0330 440 4900

Email: applications@cflm.org.uk