Northamptonshire Welcome Fund

The Northamptonshire Welcome Fund has been established in 2021 thanks to an initial appeal with public donations and two local donors, Archways Estate Agents and Barratt Homes. The donations and any other subsequent donations from the ongoing appeal will provide grants to community groups and charities to provide a broad range of assistance to address hardship for refugees and/or people seeking asylum especially including families and individuals from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

The Northamptonshire Welcome Fund supports projects up to £3000 supporting refugees and people seeking asylum across Northamptonshire. Example projects might include :

• Projects providing family support and essential items

• Projects building social networks, and reducing social isolation and loneliness

• Projects building langauge skills and longer-term employability

• Advice, advocacy and support services for refugees and people seeking asylum

Is my group eligible?

• Your project can be a new activity, start up costs for a new group or service or building on the good work you already do. Revenue and Capital Funding is eligible.
• Your group must be a small, locally managed, voluntary, community or self-help group. Please note that as a general exclusion we do not fund social enterprises with persons with significant control (PSC).
• Your total budget for the project you are applying for cannot be more than £20,000
• You must have people volunteering to help with your activity, who are not part of your management committee
• You must have a set of written rules or a constitution that your group adheres to. We can help advise you on how to do this especially if you are a new group
• You must take care to ensure that young people or vulnerable people taking part in your activity do not come to any harm whilst in your care. To this end, you must have written procedures for keeping young people and/or vulnerable people safe otherwise known as a Child Protection or Vulnerable people’s policy. You will also need an equalities policy in place. This will be needed as a condition of funding.