Bristol City Council has opened a public consultation on a proposed second round of the Bristol Impact Fund, for 2021-2025, which will continue to tackle inequalities in the city. The council is seeking responses from voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, equalities-led groups, and members of the public, and it will hold four online engagement events where you can discuss proposals and ask questions. 

The first part of the Bristol Impact Fund, from 2017-2020, gave grants to 70 organisations, including many Voscur members. For example, The C.H.E.E.S.E. Project CIC worked on a project with Rework Charity and Hartcliffe and Withywood Community Partnership to tackle fuel poverty; meanwhile, Bristol Refugee Rights was funded for partnership work with Refugee Women of Bristol and Borderlands.

Voscur offers support to organisations before and during their funding application, through one-to-one sessions with development workers, online resources, workshops on preparing for panel interviews, and more.

This consultation is an important part of the funding process, so that Bristol City Council can gather feedback on the overall goal of the fund, the difference it should make, monitoring and evaluation, and other key factors.

The four engagement events will take place on:

• Friday 20 November, 10am-11:30am - click here to book.
• Tuesday 24 November, 11am-12:30pm - click here to book.
• Friday 27 November, 10am-11:30am (this session is aimed at equalities-led or equalities-supporting groups) - click here to book.
• Wednesday 2 December, 2:30-4pm - click here to book.

All responses to the consultation will inform proposals going to the Bristol City Council Cabinet in February 2021.

Councillor Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor of Bristol with responsibility for Communities, Equalities and Public Health, said:

“Community and voluntary organisations are a crucial part of what makes Bristol such a creative, dynamic and progressive city. Communities coming together and creatively using the resources we have is at the heart of our city’s response to the continuing challenge of COVID-19.

“We have been working closely alongside the VCSE Strategy group, a strategic partnership of infrastructure organisations – Locality, Voscur and Black Southwest Network (BSWN) – to ensure that the Bristol Impact Fund meets the needs of our communities. Our proposals have also been shaped by our learnings from COVID-19.”

Sandra Meadows, Chief Executive of Voscur, said:

“Bristol charities and social enterprises make an amazing difference to our people and communities, thanks to Bristol City Council’s funding. Such funding is needed more than ever in these challenging times.

“We hope that the next round of funding will help address Bristol’s inequalities, particularly for those communities that have been badly affected by COVID-19 and experience deeply embedded disadvantage. It’s really important that this consultation reaches organisations and people in those communities, and that their voices are heard.”

The deadline for responding to the consultation is Wednesday 16 December 2020.

For more information or to receive details in other formats such as Braille or BSL video, please email investmentandgrants@bristol.gov.uk or call 0117 922 2135.