Big Lottery Funding awarded to Gloucestershire Companies

The Big Lottery Fund has awarded £630,000 of Lottery funding to 36 organisations across England to raise awareness to the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, of the opportunities available to them through the European Social Fund (ESF).

GFirst LEP worked with the Big Lottery to provide advice and guidance on funding, and to appoint the successful applicants to move the project forward.

Gloucestershire Rural Community Council (GRCC) and Gloucestershire Association for Voluntary and Community Action (GAVCA) were the successful bidders for the Big Lottery fund within Gloucestershire. They will be working in partnership to increase knowledge and understanding of the ESF funding amongst Gloucestershire’s VCSE organisations, so that groups are well placed to recognise opportunities and make bids when the ESF becomes available.

Peter Carr, Deputy Chief Executive, GFirst LEP commented: “As well as working closely with GFirst LEP and Gloucestershire VCS Alliance, GRCC and GAVCA will use their range of existing links to raise awareness of the European funding opportunities. They will be supporting local businesses within the VCSE sector with opportunities to bid and access the funding that is available to them, with all of the advice they need.”

In order to raise the awareness needed GAVCA and GRCC will be holding surgeries over the next few months for businesses to get involved. For more information on this and to sign up to their newsletter, contact Barbara Pond 01452 528491 or bpond@grcc.org.uk. 

For more information about the Big Lottery please visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.