South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Green Social Prescribing Grants Programme

Written by South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation

Health, care, voluntary and community organisations across our region’s Integrated Care System are working together to encourage more time outdoors and are supporting people who don’t feel they have access or the opportunity to appreciate the positive effects of the natural world around them.

Spending time in and connecting with nature is shown to improve people’s mood, anxiety levels and physical health, and £400k national and local funding is available to support local community organisations in Bassetlaw, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield in improving people’s mental and physical health through blue and green social prescribing.

Funding priorities

Applications are invited from voluntary and community organisations who can demonstrate that they can support the programme funding priorities as follows:

Green and/or blue activities

All funded projects will need to demonstrate that they connect people with the outdoors. This might include connecting people with green or blue space in the following ways:

Horticulture
Conservation
Physical activity (moving more)
Wilderness focussed
Integrating alternative therapies
Craft focussed
Integrating talking therapies
Nature appreciation
Care farming
Other

Supporting people with mental ill health

The key aim of the programme is to tackle and prevent mental ill-health, and will offer green and blue activities to people with a variety of identified mental health needs.

Improving access to green prescribing for communities impacted by Covid 19

The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Green Social Prescribing Programme aims to improve access to green prescribing for the general population.

However, we know that some communities were particularly impacted by Covid 19 and health inequalities. For that reason, we will prioritise activities that are inclusive of diverse communities, and that can specifically improve access to green or blue activities for any of the following communities:

Black and Ethnic Minority Communities
Young People
People who are Clinically Extremely Vulnerable to Covid (i.e. people who were asked to ‘shield’)
People living in areas of deprivation (Index of Multiple Deprivation most deprived 20% Lower-layer Super Output Area).

Place Based Priorities

Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust has led stakeholder engagement for the programme over a number of months to help us understand Place based priorities for the grants. We will prioritise activities that can demonstrate a strong connection within the community they are working with and support the following priorities

How much can I apply for?

There is a total fund of £400,000, to be allocated across our five Places. Three sizes of grant can be applied for:

Micro Grants – under £1,000
Small grants – £1,000 – £10,000
Medium grants – over £10,000, capped at £30,000

Please note, due to the total amount of funds available for distribution and anticipated interest in the fund, we expect that the majority of successful applications will be for micro or small grants.

Medium grant awards are only for exceptional projects that have strong local partner support. Applicants seeking to bid at this level are encouraged to discuss their application prior to submission with the Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust team on email: greenprescribing@wildsheffield.com

Please note, it is a requirement of this funding that your grant should be spent by 31 December 2022. Please keep this in mind when deciding how much your organisation applies for.

When can I apply?

We are accepting application forms from 4^th October until 9am Monday 25 October 2021.

Where can I apply?

Micro grants – apply here
Small grants – apply here
Medium grants – apply here

Who can apply?

Grants are specifically to support voluntary and community organisations, including small community led groups through to larger established organisations.

The applicant must be:

A registered charity,
A community interest company, or
Another constituted community organisation or social enterprise (including companies limited by guarantee, cooperatives and community benefit societies which are strictly not for-profit)

Guidance

Please read the full guidance document relating to this programme that covers more background including the priorities of the fund; application and reporting processes; conditions of the grant

Guidance – Green Social Prescribing Grants Programme