European Social Fund Community Grants

Recently as part of my work placement, I attended a brief workshop about applying for grants from the European Union for community projects and I think the information ought to be more readily available, so I'm going to post slides from the presentation and a couple of notes I made, and hide the rest of the post behind a page break in case you are super not interested because even though it's useful knowledge to have as an artist, it's not particularly exciting or even attractively designed.

Also useful to note that the projects for this round of funding are to be completed by June 2015

When I asked The Cultural sisters why there wasn't any funding for mental health, it's because that has been funded for previously in Stoke-On-Trent and Staffordshire and so they are trying to obtain different audiences this time round and trying to move people towards gaining more employment-related skills.
BME stands for Black Minority Ethnic groups

Funding for projects that aim to improve the self-esteem of individuals, transferrable skills that can be used for employment (such as working in a team, being organised etc.) but anything that results in a qualification won't be funded because mainstream education is already provided.

Public Liability insurance is essential to have covered.

ESF stands for European Social Fund, SCF stands for Staffordshire Community Funding, ILR stands for Individual Learning Records.

Questions asked at the workshop include:

• Can my organisation apply for ESF again after recieving funding previously?
  Yes, but with different participants, engaging different people

• Can capital costs be covered? Yes up to £1000
  
• Can Individual Learning logs be tailored to suit different courses?No they are a standard ESF form
  
• Can one organisation apply for 2 grants if they are working at two different locations?Yes but would only be able to apply for £15,000 overall ie 2 x £7500
  
• Can one organisation apply for 2 grants in different Counties? Yes but would only be able to apply for £15,000 overall ie 2 x £7500

Staffordshire Community Foundation, Sally Grieve is the person to contact about questions.