Community groups helping people through hard times

The first round of awards from Bury Council’s Cost of Living Community Fund have been made – and there’s still time to apply for the second round.

The fund was launched in December to support voluntary and community groups in helping people through hard times, as part of Bury’s Cost of Living strategy, and enable the provision of projects or activities to support local neighbourhoods.

The second round of the fund is still open – local voluntary and community groups have until 10am on Monday 13 February to submit their applications. To apply and for more information visit Grants – Bury VCFA

A total of £20,000 was allocated in the first round, and the successful projects were:

• Age UK – to deliver information and advice to older people and their carers to enable them to (continue to) live independently, including support in maximising Pension Credits and Attendance Allowance.
• Bury Fellowship – to deliver debt counselling support, in particular to those receive emergency support with groceries or energy bills, in conjunction with Christians Against Poverty.
• Eagles Wing – to retain a support group two mornings a week to, in particular, assist asylum seekers, refugees, and broader communities with financial resilience guidance as part of holistic support including tackling isolation and access to services.
• L’Chaim – To enhance their existing foodbank activities by combining emergency food aid with services for household longer term planning of their personal budgets, including career and education pathways.
• St. Peter’s – To support the provision of a warm space to local residents with wraparound support to tackle the harms for those experiencing poverty.
• Sunnywood Project – This project is designed to improve participants mental, physical and social wellbeing by providing a warm safe space after a healthy activity. This will include a gentle paced walk exploring Burrs Country Park while facilitating conversations and allowing participants to talk about issues that matter to them and access information on community projects and advice.
• Trust House – to support the delivery of the community café, warm space and food pantry, with the reintroduction of wellbeing sessions covering issues raised by their visitors including self-esteem and eating to stay well.
• Jewel Foundation – to provide a range of online courses to residents who are in low income employment. The training will support residents to develop the necessary skills to increase their income through career progression.

Councillor Richard Gold, cabinet member for finance and communities, said: “Voluntary and community groups across Bury provide crucial support to local people. Bury Council established this fund to support the resilience of such groups in delivering initiatives with those most affected by cost of living pressures.

“There is no single answer to tackling poverty and this first set of projects to be funded demonstrates the different approaches, tailoring and targeting support as set out in our Anti Poverty Strategy and in the spirit of Let’s Do It!

“Thank you to those projects who have applied so far, and there is still time to get your applications in if you’re a community group and haven’t yet done so”.