Grants to local communities and partners.

Grants of up to £10,000 for single organisations or £30,000 for partnerships were distributed through an open competitive process led by North Somerset Council (NSC) to deliver the following interventions:

• E6: Local arts, cultural, heritage & creative activities
• E9: Impactful volunteering and/or social action projects
• E11: Capacity building & infrastructure support local groups
• E12: Community engagement schemes, local regeneration
• E14: Relevant feasibility studies

You can see which projects were funded in 2023 and 2024 on North Somerset Council’s dedicated webpages.

Digital infrastructure works to improve two libraries in Portishead and Nailsea

The libraries project aimed to improve digital infrastructure in the community through investment at Nailsea library and Portishead library. The new Nailsea library location in Colliers Walk, Crown Glass shopping centre, had self-service technology allowing registered customers to use the library when staff were not there.

Customers were able to come into the library to use library computers, WiFi and other library resources 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm. At Portishead library, a “Nook” pod provided facilities for digital meetings and study for library customers.

Capacity building for organisations

This project built on the CRF-funded Innovation Plan to support community groups, social enterprises, not-for-profit organisations, and charities interested in developing asset-based projects. It offered capacity-building and performance improvement support to increase organisational capacity.

The project focused on addressing local challenges like utilising vacant buildings for community and SME space, driving local wealth building, and improving high streets. It supported emerging, locally-led enterprises to unlock vacant units for community and local economic use, increasing their sustainability by utilising assets.

Click here to find out about the outcomes from the project.

Carbon Literacy

This project created a Climate & Sustainability Partnership and delivered a mass Carbon Literacy session to local residents and organisations. The work allowed 192 members of the community to access Carbon Literacy training in a single day, raising climate awareness and teaching learners to embed climate awareness into their work and organisational culture.

As a result of this work, North Somerset Council’s Climate Team won a Carbon Literacy Action Day Catalyst Award.

Care leaver employment and training support

A specialist Education, Employment, and Training (EET) Coach supported young care leavers (aged 16-25) into sustainable education, employment, and training. This helped them with the transition to independence and adulthood.

The council worked with local organisations and businesses to develop new partnerships and provide work placement opportunities, helping both the care leavers to build their employment skills and businesses to increase their capacity.

This work was later delivered through the Moving Up North Somerset project.