£100,000 on offer to help local voluntary groups

WEST Lancs CVS has announced a new round of grants for the local voluntary sector.

The grants have been made possible by funding from West Lancs Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The CCG investment of £100,000 will create a series of grant pots for organisations to apply to for funding.

Groups can apply for projects which use behaviour change approaches to improve health and wellbeing in the three primary care networks (PCN) areas of West Lancashire: Skelmersdale and Upholland; Ormskirk and Aughton; and Burscough, Parbold and the Northern Parishes.

This funding round is a repeat of last year’s grants, when CCG investment enabled the creation of a funding pot for the West Lancs voluntary sector.

In the 2018-19 funding round, CCG grants were awarded to a wide range of organisations working to improve health and wellbeing around West Lancs.

These included a Connected Counselling service, a partnership involving the Birchwood Centre, Yewdale Counselling Service and West Lancs Bereavement Counselling Service which supports people undergoing counselling locally to also tackle life issues such as debt, housing problems, family problems, thereby enhancing the impact of counselling on the individual.

Among the small grants awarded was one to Up Holland Scouts for a canoeing project to engage hard to reach teenagers, another to a Wellbeing Cafe in Burscough run by Burscough Community hub, and an innovative outreach project by SWICAN offering welfare rights advice to isolated areas of the borough.

A West Lancs CVS spokesman said: “We are delighted that the CCG has committed to invest in the voluntary sector again this year through these grants.

“I have no doubt that the projects developed by voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise groups will be highly effective in finding new ways of working in partnership with our community to support health improvement.

“This is about developing partnership working, utilising our local community assets and thinking ‘outside the box.’”

The money will be available to local charities and voluntary groups and there are three sizes of grant available: up to £1000, £1,000 to £10,000, and £10,000 to £20,000

Larger organisations will be encouraged to work in partnership with local smaller groups and make good use of community venues and services.

Application packs for all three funding pots are now available and detail submission dates.

For further information, email vicky@wlcvs.org