Wolverhampton Voluntary & Community Action

Wolverhampton Voluntary & Community Action is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 700910).

WVCA, formerly Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council, aims to make a positive difference for people in Wolverhampton by supporting voluntary and community groups. It gives grants to help groups achieve their charitable aims, and these are not used to provide any personal benefit to group members. Through initiatives including the HOPE Project, St Peter's Physical Activity Project, Impact Volunteering Project, Social Enterprise Boost Fund and Hospital Discharge Project, it has worked alongside grassroots organisations. Over the past year it has secured and redistributed £294,000 to 43 different community groups and organisations across the city.

Priority Areas

WVCA supports voluntary and community organisations by bringing resources into Wolverhampton and sharing them so organisations can deliver services for local people. Its grants help groups achieve their charitable aims, without providing personal benefits to their members. Its small-grants programmes are for grassroots organisations and community groups, including work to strengthen volunteering and activities that reduce loneliness and isolation. It describes most of its work as within Wolverhampton, with some cross-boundary work in the Black Country and, less often, the West Midlands.

Themes

• Volunteering
• Loneliness and isolation
• Health and care

Geographic Focus

Wolverhampton. Priority: The Black Country: Dudley County, Sandwell County, Walsall County and Wolverhampton in United Kingdom; the West Midlands.

For the Community Health Stories Small Grants Programme, organisations complete the application form describing the project or activity, its impact on beneficiaries and planned spending, then return the completed form to applications@wvca.org.uk.

Who can apply:

• Impact Volunteering Small Grants Programme
  • You will be a voluntary organisation, preference will be given to smaller grassroots organisations in the first instance
  • Your organisation must be based in Wolverhampton and primarily support Wolverhampton residents
  • Your organisation must agree to complete a simple baseline survey from volunteers once the funding has been issued and also on completion of the project
  • Your organisation must not already have had any the Know Your Neighbourhood Funding
• HOPE Small Grants Programme: You will be a voluntary organisation or community group with a turnover of less than £50K
• Community Health Stories Small Grants Programme
  • You will be a voluntary or community organisation
  • You must have an existing relationship with the community you plan to engage, due to the short delivery timescales and the need for participants to feel safe, comfortable and willing to share meaningful experiences
  • You must be able to demonstrate how you will ensure consent, confidentiality, and safeguarding

What the charity says:

• Priority is given to grassroots, community-led organisations.
• Applicants must have an existing relationship with the community they plan to engage.
• Applicants must demonstrate how they will ensure consent, confidentiality and safeguarding.
• Applications are scored from 1 to 5, and must score at least 3 on each question to succeed.
• The strength of each application is considered alongside the other applications received.
• Funded organisations are expected to report on delivery, spending, what worked well and learning.