UKSPF Funding Opportunities

Community Grants Programme 

Our most recent opportunity is jointly funded through UKSPF, Multiply (internal webpage) and our Adult Education Budget (internal webpage)

The Community Grants Programme will address barriers that may prevent local people from accessing the city-region's varied employment and learning programmes.

Managed by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) on GMCA’s behalf, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations and Housing Associations will have the opportunity bid for funding of up to £100,000 to invest in a flexible and free local offer, ensuring support is targeted to those who need it most. 

As well as supporting residents, the programme has been designed to offer capacity building support to smaller VCSE organisations so the programme can benefit as many grass-roots groups as possible.  

The programme will enable two strands of activity over the course of five years, which are jointly funded through Greater Manchester’s devolved Adult Education Budget, UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and Multiply. They are:

1. Essential Life Skills (funded via Multiply & GM’s devolved Adult Education Budget): This strand will look to increase participation in adult skills by exploring new and innovative ways of engaging with residents and supporting them into learning opportunities suiting their needs. It will focus on the city-region's working age adults with basic entry level qualifications.
2. Progression towards inclusive employment (funded via UKSPF): This strand will tackle the various barriers some residents are facing that may prevent them from engaging with existing learning opportunities.

Application dates will be added to WEA’s website (external website) by the end of October 2023.