The Hope Beyond grants programme aims to enable churches and Christian charities to meet changing needs within their communities, helping them and the communities they support to adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Through theHope Beyond grants, Allchurches Trust aim to fund innovative, impactful projects that will enable people, organisations and communities to flourish in life after lockdown, building resilience and encouraging hope.
The Hope Beyond funding will look to address these three themes:
- Projects responding to the issues of loneliness and isolation exacerbated by the Coronavirus pandemic where new and/or enhanced support is being proposed. This could include enabling improved accessibility to buildings/activities and measures to ensure buildings are Covid-19 safe
- Projects focused on growing community resilience and promoting mental and emotional health and wellbeing, including the provision of mental health and wellbeing support groups and 1:1 counselling for people of all ages (including clergy).
- Projects focused on growing technological capability and resilience, particularly increasing digital capacity and provision, and supporting those without online access to get online through training and support.
In all cases, applicants will need to demonstrate how their project is seeking to directly respond to increasing/new need as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to funding capital projects, such as adaptation of buildings and the purchase of equipment, the Hope Beyond programme will also fund project-related salaries and some other revenue costs (to the end of 2021), such as training of staff and/or volunteers. This recognises that many churches and Christian charities are facing significant financial hardship at this time and that additional resource may be required to implement new ways of working and introduce new and/or enhanced support and activities to meet changing need. The programme will not support general ‘business as usual’ running costs.
Grants of up to £50,000 are available to churches and Christian charities, and the amount you receive will depend upon the cost of your project and the level of need in your community, ranging from 10% of project cost through to 80%.
For more information and to apply click here