Grants database

The Civic Power Fund is a new fund for grassroots community organising, building the power of excluded communities to take action on the issues that matter to them. This grant will support their work with organisations led by refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and diaspora communities, so that these communities are better able to demand their existing rights; increase their political influence and win policy change that improves life for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers; and build deep bonds of solidarity with their neighbours, creating more welcoming communities and challenging the narratives that fuel punitive policy making.

Young at Art provides arts opportunities for children and young people in Northern Ireland. It is also home to the flagship Belfast Children’s Festival. This grant supports Young at Art to work with six Belfast primary schools. Using their established visual arts and drama-based approach, they will build children’s resilience and support their mental health and wellbeing, as well as their engagement with learning. They also plan to enable teachers to gain skills and confidence to use arts-based practice in the classroom.

Travelling Light is a storytelling company for children and young people based in Bristol. They create theatre for and with young people that inspires their thinking, engages their emotions and fires their imaginations. This grant supports Light Up Language, which will explore in more depth how drama-based approaches can support targeted groups of pupils experiencing barriers to learning and who have been identified as needing additional oracy support including those with SEND and who are learning English as an additional language.

The Line is an ambitious public art project in East London, connecting Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and The O2 in Greenwich. This grant supports Spaces to Explore – a two-year, co-created Artist-in-residence programme where three Newham primary schools are partnering with The Line, utilising its outdoor sculpture exhibition to inspire pupils to explore art and nature in the classroom and onsite along the sculpture trail. Co-created, process-driven artistic sessions connect pupils and teachers with critical thinking and new perspectives whilst providing tangible curriculum links.

Motionhouse creates and tours inspiring dance-circus productions across the UK and globally, whilst delivering a vibrant creative learning programme. This grant supports Motionhouse to work with two primary schools and two SEND schools (primary and secondary) in Warwickshire to develop the Wider World Project. They aim to use physical storytelling and dance/​movement to support children and young people to explore ideas of citizenship, belonging and difference, enabling them to find common ground, build creative skills, confidence and self-esteem, teamwork, communication skills, and self-expression.

Ignite! provides creative opportunities to children and young people across the East Midlands and beyond. This grant supports the delivery of Curious Tots, which is an in-depth, arts-based programme delivered weekly in primary school nursery classrooms. Schools engaging with the Curious Tots programme will have an artist practitioner embedded in the classroom for one day per week for a year. The programme also supports the professional learning and development of nursery class staff. Over the next 3 years, Ignite! plans to scale the programme to 5 schools in Nottingham.

Delight works in partnership with arts organisations, schools and external agencies to co-develop and co-deliver high quality arts programmes that address social and educational challenges faced by primary aged pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This grant provides support for Delight’s core costs during a three-year period of research, development and delivery. Delight is aiming to evolve, strengthen and grow its delivery models and programmes with its Surrey and Croydon primary school partners.

The University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre (AAC) is the largest contemporary art gallery in Leicester. This grant supports the next phase of their SENsory Atelier programme. AAC plan to embed their approach, which involves child-led, multi-sensory practice and Reggio Emilia principles, in nine SEND schools in Leicester. This will involve arts practitioners working collaboratively with teaching staff. Pupils aged 4–19 will learn through several different art forms, building physical, social, emotional and communication skills, and greater engagement and agency over their learning. AAC also plan to trial the approach with five mainstream schools and share learning about the SENSory Atelier arts-based approach more widely.

Maslaha builds community with racialised Muslim young people and aims to work deeply with them to foster a sense of pride and self-worth as Muslims. They also collect evidence on the needs and experience of young Muslims, provide practical solutions to unmet needs, influence sector bodies through a strong evidence base to design better services, and shift systems to ensure better outcomes for young Muslims. This grants provides a contribution to Maslaha’s core costs.

Kids of Colour supports young people of colour aged 25 and under to explore race, identity and culture. Its mission is to ​‘undo the legacy of racism across all its forms’ in young people’s lives. This grant will support staff wellbeing and retention as the organisation grows. It will also enable the organisation to focus on strategy, and longer-term planning. This will include better articulation of impact and learning from its processes in care and support.

Youth Leads UK supports disadvantaged young people to enrich their skills, reach their potential and influence change. This grant will enable Youth Leads UK to grow by enhancing their organisational infrastructure and strategic capabilities. This includes establishing an Advisory Council, implementing a new CRM system, and developing a sales function to generate income. These improvements will allow them to focus on empowering young people, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds, to enter and excel in leadership roles.

Young Identity is a Black, Asian and ethnically diverse-led micro arts charity that engages marginalised young people in writing, performance and theatre across Greater Manchester. This grant provides core funding to enable Young Identity to strengthen their core team, to deepen their existing arts activity, to create a new programme of work and to develop their evaluation function.