Manchester Work Clubs Funding: 2020-2021

Manchester City Council recognises the important role Work Clubs play in providing flexible and informal employment support to workless Manchester residents. 

In recognition of the valuable role they play in delivering employment support services, Manchester City Council has made available grant funding for Manchester Work Clubs to apply for.

The aim of Manchester Work Club Grant Funding is to contribute to Manchester City Council’s priority of increasing the number of Manchester residents who are working. It will:

• Provide an opportunity for established Work Clubs in Manchester to undertake initiatives, short projects or increase resources to improve outcomes for their clients. Specifically, this funding is to undertake activities that will improve the quality and quantity of services provided to Work Club service users
• To increase the number of residents who access support

Priorities of grants  
Manchester City Council are looking to fund work club settings that:

• Have strong links and partnerships/work collaboratively with other employment support providers, such as other Work Clubs, programmes such as Working Well and Employers
• Work with partners who are delivering skills support activities (such as MAES, The Manchester College and Libraries) and refer to this
• Use the Our Manchester Approach to support and signpost residents with a wider range of issues surrounding work, i.e. housing, emotional support, mental health

Successful applicants will be expected to promote their work club offer weekly, as a minimum and attend and participate in area focused Employment and Skills Support networks and groups. 

Objectives
Manchester City Council expect all applications to meet the following objectives:

• Improve the employability of service users who find it difficult to access mainstream support
• Increase referrals from informal to formal training
• Develop and/or strengthen links with employers
• Progress a percentage of service users on to employment

Manchester City Council expect work clubs to work with different kinds of service users and make sure that services are accessible to all.

The value of this Manchester Work Club Grant Funding programme is £130,000 in total. Applicants can apply for a maximum of £10,000 to be spent over a 1 year period.

The programme will run from April 2020 to 31st March 2021.

To be eligible to apply, organisations must be:

• Not-for-profit: voluntary and community organisations, social enterprises, co-operatives and mutual societies, Community Interest Companies, charities i.e. non-governmental organisations which are value driven and which principally invest their surpluses to further social, environmental or cultural objectives
• Based in the City of Manchester and currently delivering Work Club activity to Manchester residents

Priority will be given to work clubs supporting those living in the most disadvantaged areas.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, email Tom Nelson at: [email protected]

Completed application forms should be emailed to: [email protected]

Application deadline: 9 March 2020, 10:00