Enabling the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Grant

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Bristol City Council understands the vital role of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the life of the city. We’re committed to enabling the VCSE sector to build a more sustainable future to contribute to:
• Powerful, thriving communities
• Strong, long term vision and leadership of the sector
• A city plan and approach that reflects the diversity and creativity of the city.
Our Enabling the VCSE Sector grant is open to organisations which can demonstrate excellent knowledge of the VCSE sector in Bristol, a track record of delivery and clear commitment to positive action to address systemic disadvantage.

We want to hear how they will embody our community building principles to deliver, through strategic and operational collaboration, the sector’s priorities:

• Enable confident leadership and influence so that the VCSE sector, in all its diversity, can:
o play a full part in shaping and achieving the ambition of the city set out in the One City Plan
o influence and shape the Enabling the VCSE Grant so that it responds to the changing priorities of the sector and has maximum impact
o take positive action to address systemic disadvantage
• Create the conditions so that organisations are more able to share assets (time, skills, knowledge, experience, money, buildings etc.) and produce collective solutions to shared problems
• Build on the existing business skills and capacity for enterprise. This includes supporting VCSE to access grant funding, find new sources of funding, earned income, income generation and management of assets
• Build on the VCSE’s capacity to develop, respond to change and problem-solve through a city offer which will include;
o organisations that are led by equalities groups
o neighbourhoods and places experiencing greatest disadvantage
o smaller and emerging community groups
• Support the VCSE sector by accessing local, regional and national assets including; funding and investment opportunities, skills, knowledge, private sector support, data, policy and practice

Application deadline: Covid-19: postponement of Enabling the VCSE Grant application deadline
We apologise but due to the Covid-19 emergency we are postponing the application process and start date for this grant opportunity.
The grant application deadline will now be: Monday 19th October 2020.
The successful applicant(s) will now start delivery from 1st April 2021, not 1st October 2020, as set out in the original funding timeline.
We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. All applicants will be eligible to re-submit and amend any applications already posted by the above deadline.