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Skills and Opportunities Fund

28 Aug 2015 - 10:23 by michelle.foster

The Skills and Opportunities Fund is one of the many ways Natwest are contributing to the communities they live and work in. This year Natwest are committing £2.5m to fund projects in charities, social enterprises, community groups, state-funded schools and colleges across the UK and Ireland.

The focus for this funding is to support organisations that help people in disadvantaged communities develop, create or access the skills and opportunities they need to help themselves; skills that will enable them to get into work or start a business, now or in the future. Natwest believe that helping people gain such skills and access opportunities to learn can help turn their lives around and build better communities for everyone.

Natwest want to support as many people and organisations as possible. So even if your project isn’t shortlisted, Natwest may be able to help you in other ways. This might include offering their skills and expertise to help you get your project off the ground in addition to a grant.

Natwest have split the country into seven regions, each with its own decision making board, in order to distribute the Skills and Opportunities Fund.

In the North, the Board are looking to fund projects that serve a community recognised as disadvantaged such as young people with a lack of opportunities, people with disabilities or minority groups. The Board are especially keen on projects that support the creation of jobs and businesses in rural areas, improve young people’s life chances by providing recognised qualifications and those that help people investigate self-employment or start their own business. The Board particularly welcome organisations who use a high number of volunteers in the delivery of their activities.

Your organisation must
• be a not-for-profit organisation or an eligible state-funded education body e.g. charity, social enterprise, community group, school, college
• be based in either the UK or Republic of Ireland
• be able to demonstrate experience of working in and/or with disadvantaged communities
• be able to demonstrate experience in measuring the impact of your projects
• have a turnover of less than £5 million or be a state-funded school or college
• have been trading for at least 2 years

What happens next?

When all applications have been received and reviewed, a shortlist of projects being considered for funding in each region will be published. Voting will then be open to the public at noon on Friday 30 October.. The outcome of the public vote will be taken into consideration by the regional judging panels. Organisations will be given lots of help and advice on how to gain votes if you reach the shortlist of projects. The chosen projects will receive their funding in December this year.

For further information and to apply, visit: http://skillsandopportunitiesfund.natwest.com/, or contact 0191 438 7999, or email: [email protected]

Deadline: Friday 11 September 2015, 12noon

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