The Barnet Community Innovation Fund is open for applications
The Barnet Community Innovation Fund is a new grant scheme designed to help build stronger relationships between Barnet residents, the Voluntary and Community Sector, local NHS services, and Local Authority, to achieve better health and mental wellbeing locally.
The fund will do this by supporting innovative ideas from Barnet’s voluntary and community sector on how to work with our diverse communities. It will build on established successful partnerships that have grown during the pandemic.
Barnet Council and local NHS partners in the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) have allocated £150,000 to establish the first round of the Barnet Community Innovation Fund. The new fund will operate on a rolling basis with further rounds of funding to be announced later in the year.
Now open for applications, the fund will be jointly administered by Barnet Council and Barnet Together – a partnership of local infrastructure organisations: Inclusion Barnet, Volunteering Barnet and the Young Barnet Foundation.
The fund welcomes applications from across Barnet’s voluntary and community sector. The first funding round will deliver £150,000 to support projects through three levels of investment: small grants for a ‘pilot’ project of up to £2,000, ‘start-up’ investments of up to £10,000, and a ‘big idea’ investment of up to £65,000.
The first round will prioritise:
- Initiatives that support unpaid carers, a group that has been particularly impacted by the pandemic
- Digital inclusion projects for older residents that reduce social isolation
- Support for residents who have lost their jobs, or are at risk of losing them
- Initiatives that help prevent lost functionality and mobility in older residents
Cllr Caroline Stock, Mayor of Barnet, said:
“We want the Barnet Community Innovation Fund to support initiatives that improve the health and wellbeing of our diverse communities and strengthen resilience. The new fund will continue to build on the existing partnerships that we have seen grow ever-stronger during COVID-19. Working together means we can deliver vital and robust preventative and early-intervention programmes to our communities where it is needed most.”
Denis Enright, Director of Operations at Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, said:
“The Barnet Community Innovation Fund recognises the enormous potential to build on existing strengths within the borough and deliver integrated care programmes through the partnership of public health and voluntary sector services. It will ensure that the already booming voluntary and community sectors are supported to develop and sustain their practices in areas of greater deprivation, and provide support to residents who are most in need.”
Dr Mike Greenberg, Barnet Hospital Medical Director, said:
‘’At Barnet Hospital, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, we are committed to achieving the aims of the Barnet Integrated Care Partnership, and welcome this innovative fund which will benefit the health and wellbeing of our local community.’’
Visit Barnet Community Innovation Fund to apply. The deadline for applications is Monday 1 March at 5pm.
Notes:
The Barnet Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) brings together North Central London CCG; Barnet Council; Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust; Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust and the Barnet GP Federation. With input from other key stakeholders from the voluntary sector. The ICP’s vision is to maximise health and wellbeing for all people of Barnet by working together as an integrated care partnership.
Barnet Together is an infrastructure partnership of Inclusion Barnet, Volunteering Barnet and the Young Barnet Foundation that provides coordination and support to Barnet’s voluntary and community sector.