Oxford City Council has announced the 36 organisations and community groups across the city who will benefit from grants of up to £28,000 as part of its Community Impact Fund ‘Big Ideas’ grants.
The Council’s Community Impact Fund opened for the first round of proposals on 20 December.
Demand for funding has been overwhelming, with over £5 million in requests against an available £1m over three years.
Despite the challenging economic times, Oxford has been able to maintain a community grants programme that will support third sector partners who share common objectives with the Council:
- support thriving communities
- pursue a zero carbon Oxford
- enable an inclusive economy
- deliver more, affordable housing (helping those at risk of homelessness and in unsuitable housing)
The Council has changed the way it awards grants to the city’s charities and community groups, following a funding review carried out over the summer of 2021.
The full list of successful applicants is as follows:
- AFiUK
- Ark-T Centre
- Aspire Oxfordshire
- Asylum Welcome
- Barton Community Association
- Blackbird Leys Adventure Playground (BLAP)
- Cowley Road Works
- Donnington Doorstep Family Centre
- Elmore Community Services
- EMBS Community College
- Film Oxford
- Fusion Arts
- Good Food Oxfordshire
- Home-Start Oxford
- IF Oxford
- Justice in Motion
- Leys CDI
- Makespace Oxford
- Mandala Theatre Company
- My Life My Choice
- The Old Fire Station
- OVADA
- Oxford Contemporary Music (OCM)
- Oxford Hub
- Oxford Playhouse Trust
- Oxford Pride
- Oxford Youth Enterprise
- Oxfordshire Association for the Blind (OAB)
- Parasol Project
- Pegasus Theatre Trust
- Refugee Resource
- Sanctuary Hosting
- Story Museum
- Tandem Oxford
- Wood Farm Youth Centre
- Young Women's Music Project
Councillor Shaista Aziz, Oxford City Council’s Cabinet Member for Inclusive Communities, said:
“Oxford’s community organisations do extraordinary work, day in, day out, to support people, families, and communities. We are immensely grateful to everyone for their commitment, drive and care.
“The Council received funding requests totalling £5 million to finance community organisations; the Council’s budget to fund this work totals £1 million. The harsh reality is the Council’s finances are under great strain and so difficult decisions have had to be made on how the council can make best use of the limited funds we have.
“We acknowledge and understand there are community organisations who feel disappointed their organisation hasn’t received Council funds. We are committed to continuing the dialogue with community organisations to see how other funding opportunities can be harnessed by groups.
“Not securing funding from the Council’s immensely overstretched and over-subscribed grants programme is in no way a reflection of the Council not valuing any group’s work, it’s more a sad reflection of the very difficult decisions the Council has to make on where to allocate depleted resources.
“We would like to thank all community organisations and, in particular, volunteers, for their brilliant and much needed work.
“We will continue to do our best to support local groups to continue their great work. Organisations that have missed out on this funding will be supported to make bids for smaller amounts under our other schemes”.
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