Refreshing People and Places
John Rose, Wales Director of The National Lottery Community Fund, talks about the exciting changes taking place in Wales following last year’s launch of our seven-year strategy - It Starts With Community.
In the last five years alone, I’ve had the honour of witnessing over £117 million being distributed through our responsive funding programme, People and Places, to communities across Wales. The grants we have awarded have changed lives and communities, thanks to the money raised by players of the National Lottery.
With sustainability and environment being a personal passion of mine, I’m pleased to showcase our new changes for People and Places. With this refresh, we are looking to make a bigger difference in the years ahead by being guided by our four missions, which are supporting communities to:
come together
be more environmentally sustainable
help children and young people thrive
enable people to live healthier lives.
It Starts With Community reflects our ongoing commitment to funding projects that strengthen society and improve lives across Wales. As a result, we’re refreshing the People and Places programme to build on our local, relational, and strengths-based approach, whilst ensuring that communities have the tools they need to shape their own futures.
So, what have we changed?
In line with our strategy, we are asking all applicants to tell us how their project aligns with at least one of the four missions.
While open to all communities, we’ll take an equity-based approach. We’ll invest most in places, people and communities who experience poverty, disadvantage, and discrimination.
We want communities to be more environmentally sustainable, meaning all applicants will need to show a commitment to the environment. This means even projects who aren’t environmentally focused will have to demonstrate how they will be mitigating negative environmental impacts or how they will be contributing positively to the environment.
We have updated the application process so that groups can apply through our digital application portal. Through our customer research we know that the vast majority of groups want to apply digitally, however, we still offer offline options for those unable to apply online. Contact our Advice Team for further information about the application process.
Our People and Places programme has always been highly sought after and we receive far more applications than we can fund. Whilst we will commit £20 million to the programme for the 2024/2025 financial year, we anticipate the demand will be as high as ever in awarding grants ranging from £20,001 to £500,000.
By implementing this refresh, I encourage you to explore the application process and take full advantage of the resources available to help you apply for funding. These changes are designed to better support communities across Wales and the wider UK, and I’m excited to see the positive impact they will bring.
Watch this video to find out more about the changes to People and Places.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFR1RPNs4Uo
See a full list of FAQs relating to the People and Places refresh.
Learn more about all of our funding programmes.
Source: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/news/blog/2024-09-26/refreshing-our-people-and-places-funding