Groundswell Small Grants
Overview
Groundswell is a national charity. They believe that the only way to tackle homelessness is with the direct involvement of homeless people. They support homeless people to set up their own projects, to get involved in running services and to influence homelessness policy.
Anyone with experience of homelessness can apply for an award. They are aiming at new or small projects so you can only apply if your group has an annual turnover that is between £0 and definitely no more than £20,000 each year.
What do they mean by homelessness?
Anyone who is insecurely housed, i.e. if you are rough sleeping, living in a hostel or other short-term accommodation, Travelling, squatting, a refugee, asylum seeker, living in a Bed and Breakfast, a half-way house – anyone without a secure tenancy.
The Groundswell Grant Award Scheme offers anyone with experience of homelessness up to £700 to set up self-help projects or service user involvement initiatives.
They prefer examples of people working together, but if you are working alone you can still apply, as long as you can show a collective benefit for your project.
You can apply for a grant from them if you are an informal collection of people or a more formal group with a constitution. If you have plans to grow then it is probably worth getting a constitution at some point, as most other funders make this a requirement. There is information on the Groundswell website for more information on group structures and constitutions.
some examples of the type of applications we are looking for
- A group of people who all use a day centre and want to set up a magazine. A group of hostel residents who want to start running a Resident Action Group.
- A community of Travellers who want to convert a vehicle to be used as a classroom.
- A group of squatters setting up an allotment.
- A group of former rough sleepers setting up a market stall selling crafts.
Application criteria:
- Need - are you addressing an important need?
- Impact - will your project really address this need?
- Clarity - is it clear what will happen if you get the money?
- Realistic - is your project likely to happen?
- Budget - do the figures add up?
Example Grants
- Roden Street Housing & Enivronmental Group
- Shelter Northern Ireland Young People
- STEER Mental Health
- Homeplus - Belfast - £700
- Foundations - Belfast - £700