Through National Lottery Project Grants, the Arts Council are working with Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to create more and better volunteering opportunities for young people and others who experience barriers to have high quality opportunities.
Volunteering Futures will enable people to get involved in volunteering activities across the arts, heritage, museums, libraries, sport and physical activity, youth and other community settings.
Volunteering Futures want to create more and better volunteering opportunities for people:
- Who experience loneliness
- Who experience barriers to volunteering
- In areas where there are fewer volunteering opportunities
What you can apply for
Applications are welcomed for projects that:
- Are between 12 and 24 months long. Project should start no earlier than 1st April 2022 and finish no later than 31st March 2024
- Seek to create or build on partnerships between arts and cultural organisations (including museums and libraries), heritage, sport, and physical activity, youth and other community sectors
- Create significant numbers of volunteer opportunities in projects focused on creativity and culture
- Will improve access to volunteering
- Support young people
- Support individuals who face barriers to volunteering
- Create a demonstrable, lasting benefit for participating groups, and communities, especially those heavily impacted by the pandemic
- Explore, expand or scale innovation in volunteering practice that may have emerged during the pandemic. Examples might include:
- using digital technology for online recruitment, training and volunteering management, and/or to offer new online volunteering roles
- using different, or more flexible formats of volunteering (such as micro-volunteering; ways to enable volunteers to offer their time more flexibility to fit around other commitments or to try out volunteering for the first time) to increase engagement and reach new participants
- identifying and offering volunteering opportunities within communities where there is a lack of volunteering roles
- Involve the voice of volunteer participants in project planning and decision-making, as well as delivery consider supporting wider opportunities for participants to progress into other volunteer roles further education, apprenticeships, or employment in creativity and culture
- Consider the long-term sustainability of the activities and partnerships created
- Generate, and share good practice widely
To apply to Volunteering Futures your project needs to be for £100,001 or over. There is no maximum threshold for the fund. The total amount available for this time-limited priority is £4.7 million.
The Grants programme opens on 22 November. Expressions of interest close on 7 December, before inviting full applications in January.
For more information and to apply click here