Inclusive Communities Fund

The Inclusive Communities Fund aims to reach out to and engage a wide range of grassroots community organisations and groups, with an emphasis on encouraging applications from minority groups of all kinds. Applicants may be experiencing difficulties of many sorts within their communities and wish to set up positive initiatives to develop community cohesion or address early-stage crime prevention. The fund is offered in partnership with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner West Mercia Police match funded by Worcestershire Community Foundation, with a total of £90,000 to distribute across the county. This funding will help local communities put in place initiatives which will make their communities more connected and resilient, lead to avoidance or mitigation of crime or disorder and have longer-term impact. The program supports projects that create safer and more confident communities through funding 'by and for' organisations – those run by and for the users and communities they aim to serve to develop early interventions. Initiatives should take place in Worcestershire communities across a range of settings. The fund encourages both local and county-wide applications that are representative of all areas, particularly those with the highest level of deprivation. Applicants must be able to demonstrate the capacity to deliver innovative solutions to local issues within their communities. Projects may include working with diverse, vulnerable people or hard-to-reach groups, supporting activities that help diverse communities to come together, improving the safety of local communities, helping resolve local community issues, preventing or reducing crime, delivering early intervention in reducing offending and reoffending, and including multi-agency models and partnership or collaborative working.