Community Winter Support Grants

Applications are now open for the Winter Community Support grants.

There are two funding streams; the Better Care Fund and the Crisis and Resilience Fund will support the Community Winter Support Grant Scheme this year. This facilitates grant funding to a range of projects.

Eligibility criteria for each fund can be found below. If you know which stream you want to apply to, please mark it on your form. You don’t need to specifically state which fund you are applying to, but ensure your project meets all of the eligibility criteria for at least one of the funds. The panel will consider all applications and grant funding from the most suitable stream.

Better Care Fund
Applications are open to those involved in providing activities which help people in Tameside who need support to eat well, stay warm and healthy and avoid admission to hospital and other crises. Applicants can include voluntary organisations, community groups, community interest companies, social enterprises, development trusts and charities. Projects should be designed to deliver local resilience to the risk of crisis. This can include providing food-related support and helping people to keep warm.
Groups of people the fund is looking to help include older people, people living in poverty, people who are homeless, carers, people with disabilities and anybody who would otherwise be at risk of significant difficulty with daily living or isolation during the winter months.
 

All applicants to both funds.

• Must operate their projects for the benefit of the residents of Tameside.
• Must have a bank account in the organisations name (in some cases, funding may be issued via a lead or umbrella organisation.)
• Will be asked to confirm that they have the appropriate insurances, governance and risk assessments in place.

Crisis and Resilience Fund 
Projects must support one of the following themes:

• programmes and activities that improve financial resilience for individuals and local communities, to help residents better manage financial shocks in the future and mitigate the occurrence, recurrence and escalation of crises.
• the development or expansion of sustainable food support through community groceries, food pantries and food clubs.

Projects must be able to demonstrate achievable outcomes within one or more of the following categories:

• reduced experiences of material deprivation
• reduced need for emergency food parcels
• increased access to appropriate and quality advice services
• increased savings
• reduction in priority debt
• maximisation of individual’s incomes
• decreased need for Crisis Payments and Housing Payments

Examples of appropriate projects could include: 
Direct financial resilience services
For example:

• money management and budgeting support
• support with benefits
• credit union partnerships providing affordable credit and savings schemes

Training and capacity building
For example:

• training for frontline staff and volunteers to make sure that residents accessing services, including crisis services, receive skilled wrap-around support
• budgeting, financial confidence or benefits training

Teaching practical skills
For example, teaching residents:

• how to cook on a budget
• digital skills to help with benefits, income maximisation or household budgeting.

Community based support 
For example, funding could be used for:

• helping food banks transition into community grocers or food pantries
• increasing opening hours and accessibility of existing community groceries or food pantries
• schemes that help transition people away from repeat food bank use
• peer support or mentoring schemes that strengthen financial wellbeing

What the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) cannot fund

• the ongoing purchase of food for food banks or similar community crisis provision
• organisations who are already receiving funding from the Crisis and Resilience Fund
• core organisational costs not linked to CRF objectives
• activities unrelated to financial resilience or crisis prevention
• duplication of currently funded services and activity

What can I ask for?
Across the funding streams there are three main grants.

• Small grants of up to £1,500
• Larger grants of up to £5,000
• Financial Resilience grants of up to £10,000

(There is also some scope for exceptional projects to apply for a larger sum.)

Please note:

• Your project must demonstrate knowledge of your group/community, and it’s needs and must provide direct support to the resilience and wellbeing of community members who have greater need of support through the winter.
• Planned give aways of tangible items should clearly demonstrate being targeted to those in need.
• Projects tackling isolation and low mood should demonstrate longer term engagement throughout the project; parties will not be funded.
• Purchases of equipment should be for the benefit of the community. Your application should explain how the community that you support will benefit from the purchase. Equipment solely for an organisation will not be funded.

Please note that if you wish to run more than one project it is usually best to apply for them separately, if you want to check this or have other questions about eligibility please contact us. communitywintersupport@tameside.gov.uk

Complete your application form and send to communitywintersupport@tameside.gov.uk

Small Grants
The maximum you can apply for is £1,500. Please refer to eligibility criteria and see the notes section above.

Larger Grant
These are for projects that will impact on more than one town/ward and will support the wider community of Tameside and not just in one specific area or members of one organisation.

Financial Resilience Grants
These are for projects which will deliver strong financial resilience outcomes for people in Tameside. We are open to a range of innovative ideas within this. If your project can demonstrate clear resilience goals you can apply for up to £10,000. Larger grants may be considered for exceptional projects.

What is the deadline for applications?
The Community Winter Support Grants will be open to applications from 23rd October 2026 until funds are spent.
The panel will meet at regular intervals throughout the application period, and you will be informed once the panel has reached a decision on your application.

Please note: Where possible we will work with other funding partners and if we feel that your application is better suited to another funding source, we will pass your application on to them for consideration. We are doing this to try and ensure as many groups are funded as possible and we will notify you if this is the case.
Please note, the final decision on the awarding of grant monies lies with the assessors of the funds who may need to request further information.

Evaluation
If your application is successful, we will send you evaluation guidance. You will need to collect data throughout the duration of your project and need to be clear what you are evaluating before you start. The guidance will be shared when you are informed of the outcome if you are successful.

What if I have more questions?
Please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have any queries or if you want to talk through any of your ideas.

What do we do next if we want to apply?
Complete the enclosed application form and return it to:
communitywintersupport@tameside.gov.uk