Please find as below information regarding this important scheme. You may wish to draw this to the attention of community groups in your area you believe may benefit from the fund:

The Suffolk Community Restart fund, funded through Suffolk County Council, is a grant fund totalling £300,000 and each District and Borough Council within Suffolk have been given £75,000 each to offer voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) groups a grant to help them resume their previous activities safely and/or to support them to transition to new ways of working.

This scheme offers grant of between £250 and £2,500 to voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in Suffolk.

The aim of the fund is to enable VCSE organisations to restart previous activities safely and/or to support them to switch to new ways of working. All VCSE groups are eligible to apply, provided funding requested is for equipment, adaptations or staffing (but these need to additional and not part of your core costs) to enable an existing/previous activity to resume safely or to enable a new activity/service to be developed/launched.

Key information:
Before applying, please note that this funding is not intended to replace lost income/hardship experienced by VCSE organisations as a result of the pandemic, although it can be used help you to resume activities suspended due to Covid-19. We cannot provide retrospective funding for projects, unless it was something that has had to ‘pause’ due to COVID-19.

What can be funded/Criteria:
The attached criteria provides examples of the types of activity the fund can be used for:

* Minor facility alterations – i.e. Reconfiguration/refurbishment to meet social distancing requirements
* Service alterations – i.e. Volunteer training, e.g. health and safety requirements, risk assessments, etc.
* Operational alterations – i.e. Signage/floor markings – maintaining social distance and avoiding congestion

Process:
Applicants will first contact Community Action Suffolk by email at vcsesupport@communityactionsuffolk.org.uk<mailto:vcsesupport@communityactionsuffolk.org.uk> or telephone 01473 345400 to discuss their project and to ensure that it meets the attached criteria.

How to apply:
If you would like to access funding through the scheme, please complete the application form online https://forms.office.com/r/hYXMsYNkrK

Please note, demand for the Suffolk Community Restart Fund is due to be high, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.

For further information please visit Suffolk Community Restart – Community Action Suffolk<https://www.communityactionsuffolk.org.uk/suffolk-community-restart/>