Community Health Equity Manchester Grant Programme 2024

Health Equity is when everyone can reach their full health and wellbeing potential without unfair differences. Manchester City Council know from their research that some communities who already experience discrimination and disadvantage are also more likely to experience worse health outcomes.

The funding aims to help local Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations across Manchester who work with any of the specific communities below to tackle local health inequalities. Please note that these communities are not presented in priority order, applications are welcomed in support of any of these:

• Disabled people including people with learning disabilities
• LGBTQIA+ Communities that experience racial inequality
• Men experiencing poor mental wellbeing
• New or undocumented migrants / asylum seekers and refugees
• Older people (we define older people as those aged 55 years and above) experiencing poor mental wellbeing
• People or groups that experience multiple forms of discrimination (intersectionality) related to the 2010 Equality Act
• Peri-natal women
• Racially minoritised people and communities that experience and are impacted by racial inequality
• Roma / Gypsies and Travellers
• Sex workers
• Women (including trans women) experiencing domestic abuse
• Younger people (younger people are defined as those aged 18 or under, or aged 25 and under if they have a special educational need or disability) experiencing poor mental wellbeing

Aims of the fund:
The communities above have been chosen from data analysis which suggests that they face the most health inequalities and are most in need. Specifically, Manchester City Council want groups to do one or more of the following:

• Understand what is important to these communities about their health
• Remove barriers to, and increase engagement between, these communities and public service organisations, to improve health outcomes
• Help with debt and finances relating to health equity, such as helping the groups to access benefits that they are entitled to
• Help these groups to address key issues that affect their health and wellbeing

Who can apply:
Organisations must be based in and/or mainly serving Manchester residents (Manchester ward boundaries apply) and must already be delivering work for one or more of the above communities. They must also be one of the below:

• A charitable company limited by guarantee
• A charitable incorporated organisation
• A Community Benefit company registered as an industrial and provident society (Bencom)
• A community interest company limited by guarantee
• A community Interest company limited by share (Schedule 2 with 100% asset lock only)
• A constituted community group
• A faith group or organisation (exempt charity)
• A registered charity
• An unincorporated charitable association
• An unregistered voluntary or community organisation

Grants available: Grants of between £2,000 - £10,000 are available per application. Please note organisations can only apply once to this round of funding. The funding is provided by Manchester City Council’s Public Health team and managed by the Our Manchester Funds team.

While Manchester City Council are looking to invest in activity across Manchester, priority will be given to organisations working in the following wards that have been identified as most in need. Applications working in other wards are still welcome. Applications can be a mix of priority and non-priority wards. The priority wards are:

• Ancoats & Beswick
• Ardwick
• Baguley
• Charlestown
• Cheetham
• Clayton and Openshaw
• Crumpsall
• Gorton and Abbey Hey
• Harpurhey
• Higher Blackley
• Hulme
• Levenshulme
• Longsight
• Miles Platting and Newton Heath
• Moss Side
• Moston
• Rusholme
• Sharston
• Whalley Range
• Woodhouse Park

Manchester City Council aim to ensure that a proportion of funding goes to groups with a turnover of less than £10k per annum. However, the funding is still applicable to organisations with a medium (£10k – £100k per annum) or large (£100k+) turnover. 
Preference will be given to organisations with a registered address and/or delivery address within the Manchester local authority boundaries.

What will be funded:
This funding aims to support and/or expand existing community provision. Typical costs covered might include:

• Staffing and venue costs directly associated with the project
• Items of equipment
• Costs for community events or engagements
• Publicity material or meeting the costs of taking part in events which publicise the project services
• Volunteer expenses and training
• Costs of interpretations, translations, and alternative formats
• Costs towards sessional work

What won’t be funded:

• Capital costs, for example refurbishments
• Recruitment costs
• Staffing costs not related to the specific project or activity
• Core or operating costs not related to the specific project or activity
• Individuals, including for travel, study, or other purposes
• Projects or activities that have already taken place before the grant funding timelines
• Projects where food provision is the main offer

Applications should be completed using the online application form on Smart Survey
A Word version of the application form is attached to help you plan your answers, but you should then use this to make your application using the online form.
If you need help using Smart Survey, email: [email protected]

Information sessions
The Our Manchester Funds team hosted two information sessions at the beginning of February - download the presentation here

FAQ
Download frequently asked questions about the Community Health Equity Manchester Grant Programme 2024 here

Key information

Opening date	Monday 5 February 2024
Closing date	Monday 4 March 2024, 5pm
Decisions made	By end of March 2024
Start date for activity	Mid-April 2024
End date for activity	All activity must have been completed and final monitoring submitted by the end of March 2025.
Monitoring date(s)	There will be an informal check-in halfway through the project.A formal monitoring form must be completed at the end of the project. A template monitoring form will be provided.

The funding is provided by Manchester City Council’s Public Health team and managed by the Our Manchester Funds team.