Community Partnerships provide funding and development support to organisations which support adults who have a social care need. The team is very much focussed around ensuring that people can get out and about in their community and feel supported close to home. The majority of the funding goes to organisations that support people in a preventative way, people who are still quite active, but who just need a little help to remain independent.

The team supports both smaller and larger organisations and tailors the support and advice provided to each individual organisation. All organisations are encouraged to be as independent as possible and to generate income in various ways such as making a charge for each session, doing fund raising activities and applying for funding from other sources such as the Lottery.

We are part of the Well-being and Communities Directorate and support organisations that work with the following groups of adults:

• Older people (over 55)
• Adults affected by HIV and Aids (over 18)
• Adults with learning disabilities (over 18)
• Adults with mental health needs (over 18)
• Adults with physical and sensory disabilities (over 18)
• Carers (over 18)

The types of projects we fund keep people involved and active in the community in which they live; these include:

• Volunteering projects - self help projects
• Luncheon Clubs - some provide just food, some do much more
• Activity clubs - arts, crafts, games
• Healthy Living activities - walking, cooking, bowling
• Green gyms - gentle exercise, gardening, bee keeping, allotments
• Increased experience - informal IT training, family history
• Social clubs - friendship
• Maximising independence - enabling people to be more involved in their interests

Community Partnerships produces an annual report at the end of each financial year to show how the grant budgets have been spent and how this investment is good value for money for the Council. Below are some of the highlights of the 2009/2010 report.

• A total of £894,000 was invested in the voluntary sector during 2009/2010
• 176 community projects received funding
• 8,500 adults per week received support through Community Partnership funded community groups (this figure comes from the annual GFS1 survey)
• £881,000 was brought into projects by organisations through fundraising, making a sessional charge and applying for match funding
• 1,626 volunteers were instrumental in making the funded projects happen contributing 140,000 hours of their time over the year
• A further £78,000 was saved by voluntary organisations by negotiating/applying for reduced rents and by other organisations offering in-kind use of their equipment and premises. (This figure is probably much higher in reality)
• The largest proportion of people who benefited from the community groups were older people (62%) followed by adults with mental health problems (13%), adults with physical disabilities and/or sensory impairments (12%), carers (8%) and adults with learning disabilities (5%)

Community Partnerships runs a number of different grant schemes each with different maximum amounts, but all with broadly the same objectives. Please read the guidance for organisations section of the web if you would like more detailed information about what we can and cannot fund.

• Community contracts
  Contracts of up to £15,000 per year to provide a service identified as needed by the council.
• Community grants
  Grants of up to £10,000 per year for health and social care projects.
• Development Grants
  Larger grants between £10,000 and £50,000 and are awarded for between 1 and 3 years.
• Locality grants
  Grants of up to £1,000 per year for small scale projects that just need a little help to run.