Each month, our Trustees come together to award grants from our two core funds. The 'Stronger Communities Fund' (SCF), where we seek applications from community groups looking to make a difference in their area, and the 'Manchester's Rising Stars Fund' where we award grants supporting ambitious young Mancunians.
In May, we awarded 12 SCF grants totalling £44,307 – our biggest ever award of community projects in one go! Here is the full list of those fantastic local initiatives, and we look forward to sharing further details about them with you over the month.
Award: £3,520
Project: Fitness and netball sessions for refugees and asylum seekers.
Location: City-wide
Award: £3,410
Project: 12 months of forest school for local children
Location: Moss Side
Project: Building an allotment kitchen to use for years to come
Award: £4,000
Location: Levenshulme
Project: Confidence-building and mental health workshops through performing arts.
Award: £3,780
Location: Blackley
Project: A community-led summer festival at the heart of Beswick - “Belonging to Beswick Handmade Parade”
Award: £3,500
Location: Ancoats, Beswick, Clayton and Openshaw
Project: 6 months support for two community choirs – one for new parents and one for those suffering from poor mental health.
Award: £3,997
Location: Levenshulme
Project: Repeat funding of their free, high-quality, sustained music lessons to children and young people experiencing financial or social barriers.
Award: £4,000
Location: Longsight
Project: Dedicated cost of living radio shows
Award: £3,864
Location: Broadcasting across South/Central Manchester
Project: The development of a volunteer service to support housebound older people in the community.
Award: £3,856
Location: Moss Side and surrounding areas
Project: Wellbeing sessions for Black women
Award: £2,580
Location: North Manchester
Project: Creative art and wellbeing activities using Henna Tattooing
Award: £3,850
Location: Longsight
And finally, a closer look at one of our grant recipients from May and we look forward to sharing more over the coming weeks:
Irish Community Care Manchester have supported the extensive Irish community across our city for over 30 years. They offer a range of vital services and projects, such as advocacy and support, assistance for Traveller Communities, three weekly lunch groups citywide to combat social isolation and loneliness, and promote wellbeing through exercise, dance, and connection. Additionally, ICCM focuses on digital inclusion, volunteering, and arranging burials for individuals without next of kin.
One of those projects is a community allotment in Levenshulme, a true Irish heartland in South Manchester, which they use to reconnect many older members with their roots and heritage in rural Ireland. The benefits of this are many, from reducing social isolation and providing health benefits, but needs renovation and investment to get it back to being flourishing space and for people to come to sit, enjoy, to grow vegetables, flowers and simply to come together and enjoy the community space.
ICCM applied to us for a grant of £3,950 for allotment renovation costs, which we were delighted to award. This is a wonderful project we can’t wait to keep you updated on!
“Irish Community Care Manchester would like to thank the We Love MCR for a generous grant to renovate our Community Allotment Project. The allotment is a much loved community resource bringing people together to enjoy being outdoors and to grow fruit and veg. The allotment suffered during Covid lockdown. This grant will now allow us to renovate the allotment and bring it back to life, to be enjoyed by our communities. A huge thank you from all at ICCM”
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