Does your voluntary or community group have an idea to reduce Warwickshire’s carbon footprint and overall impact on climate change?
The £1 Million Green Shoots Community Climate Change Fund is still actively seeking applications and the current round of funding is open until 5 pm on Monday 17 May 2021.
So far, there have been 11 applications to the scheme covering a diverse range of projects such as:
- Rewilding schemes to restore areas of forestry lost over time;
- building a biodiversity educational space to engage, inspire and encourage local residents to support biodiversity corridors across the area; and
- Installing renewable energy technology, such as solar panels and battery storage, on community venues to reduce their carbon consumption.
Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire CAVA recently held a ‘meet the Funders’ event on Wednesday 21 April, which was attended by 94 representatives of voluntary and community groups. This event was an opportunity to find out more about the fund, understand the application process and ask questions of the expert panel. If you were not able to attend this session and a struggling to know where to start with your Green Shoots Application, you can watch the session back here:
On 6 October 2020, Warwickshire County Council’s Cabinet approved the launch of a new £1 million community fund for local schemes that will have an impact on Carbon emissions and help address the climate change emergency in Warwickshire.
The fund is open for its first round of applications, looking to support community and voluntary projects that achieve the following:
- increase the adaptability and resilience of Warwickshire to the effects of climate change
- reduce impacts on the environment, particularly regarding climate change
- ensure funded projects benefit the wider Warwickshire community.
Warwickshire County Council is keen to see project applications from:
- constituted 'not-for-profit' community organisations in Warwickshire
- non-constituted or new ‘not-for-profit’ groups working in Warwickshire that can be supported by a constituted mainstream service, Town or Parish Council or community group willing to administer the funds through an organisational bank account
- Warwickshire Town and Parish Councils
- schools, if applying as a PTA or ‘Friends of...’ group, excluding independently-funded schools.
Like any funding, there are certain general criteria that this fund seeks to support. These include, but are not limited to:
- mitigating or adapting to climate change and the environment
- benefits to the local community and connections between other groups and projects
- development of awareness in environmental issues and capacity building of local communities
- legacy and long-term impacts
- project risks and mitigation steps.
Applications for funding are to be submitted during biannual funding rounds, with each round open for a period of ten weeks. The first round of funding runs between Tuesday 2 February 2021 and Monday 17 May 2021.
There is no lower limit on how much a project can be funded for, but an upper limit on the costs of proposed projects has been set at £25,000.
Rob Powell, Warwickshire County Council’s Strategic Director for Resources, said: “The Warwickshire Green Shoots Fund is an important step forward in our response to the Climate Change Emergency that this Council declared in 2019.
“There is already lots of fantastic work going on within Warwickshire County Council and our communities across the county to help reduce Carbon footprints and minimise the effects we all have on our fast-changing climate.
“There can be few better demonstrations of our commitment to address this emergency than the sizeable sums of money made available to our communities as part of the Warwickshire Green Shoots Fund. As there is only a few weeks left of the current funding period I would encourage all groups interested in applying for funding to submit their applications without delay.”
For more information about the scheme or to complete an application for funding, visit: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/GreenShootsFund
For more information about how Warwickshire County Council is facing the challenges of the climate change emergency, visit: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/strategies-policies-legislation/facing-challenge-climate-change-warwickshire