April/May Community Stories

Godiva Sisters membership thriving after being awarded the Community Recovery and Support Grant

The Community Resilience team have recently helped the Godiva Sisters apply to the Community Recovery and Support Grant so they could get some support for their group following the pandemic. The Godiva Sisters were formed twenty years ago and is made up of local women from all faiths and cultures who meet to portray characters both ancient and modern. They also raise the profile of minority groups and engendering community cohesion.

The sessions the Sisters run are mostly self-funded, and because of the pandemic they could not do their normal fundraising activities. They have benefited from funding from the CRT before and for this reason they contacted us for help again.

The group applied for the Recovery Grant with the help of an officer for room rent and arts and crafts materials. The grant panel duly agreed to award the group £600 towards the cost of both things. This has given the group short term stability while they look for other external sources of funding.

The funding has positively affected the running of the group. Membership has increased a lot since the return to in-person meetings, with rent of the meeting place being paid for with the Grant. They are currently operating partially on Zoom too so less confident Sisters can still attend. The Godiva Sisters also partially funded the costumes they wore for the Coventry City of Culture parade with the Grant money.

Hearsall Lunch Club for the elderly awarded the Community Recovery and Support Grant!

The Community Resilience Team recently reached out to the ‘Hearsall Lunch Club’, to offer them some support and make them aware of the current opportunity of the Community Recovery and Support Grant that the team had on offer to support the sustainability of groups post covid restrictions.

The group had not previously engaged with the CRT and were not aware that they could apply for external funding. The group shared that they were self-funded with members paying a small amount for each session, but this was an added expense for pensioners who were struggling to pay bills and food costs.

A member of the team met with the group and discussed the opportunities available to them of CRT Recovery and Support Grant and other external funding such as the National Lottery Awards for All Fund. After going through the criteria with them it became clear that they were eligible to apply to both funds.

The first step was to apply to the recovery grant available through the CRT. An officer met with the group to look at options and the group submitted an application to fund their short term room hire costs and refreshments. The grant panel duly agreed to award the group £1,150 towards the costs of both.

Following on from the successful application to the recovery grant, the team supported the ‘Hearsall Lunch Club’ in applying to the National Lottery small grants fund, Awards for All. The group had been interested in receiving some funds for transport costs for their members as well as other items to sustain themselves in the longer term. The group were successful with this application and awarded £9,700 towards transport costs, room hire, meals and entertainment.

This extra support through the grants has helped to reduce the possibility of people who attend the group becoming socially isolated, with many members of the group living alone and now supporting them to attend the group regularly again.

Launch of new Youth Hub at St Peter's Hillfields

A new Youth Hub has launched at St Peter's Hillfields on Tuesday and Thursday 3:15 - 5:30pm to provide a safe place for young people to go after school. Food will be provided along with activities including air hockey, table tennis and pool.