Purpose

The community and voluntary sector is vital to
Bristol’s wellbeing, health and economy. The sector is also
vital in supporting the council to meet its obligations and
strategic objectives. The context of
current funding is one of growing inequity exacerbated by
austerity, cost of living, the climate crisis
and other complex factors.
In February 2022 Cabinet approved a community-led decision-making
approach to allocate £4million capital funding for the
Community Resilience Fund and established a reserve of £600k
for the duration of the programme. The Community Resilience Fund is
a one-off capital grant fund established in response to
recommendations of the Bristol VCSE Strategy Group and VCSE report
‘Designing and New Social Reality’ as part of an
overall goal to build city resilience by growing the power of
communities experiencing the greatest inequality.
In addition, in February 2021 Cabinet approved £2,351,995
revenue funding to support the delivery of a Voluntary, Community
and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector recovery strategy and enabling
a proposed new Communities Resilience Fund (CRF) commencing
2021/22.
Cabinet?authorised the Executive Director for People in
consultation with the Cabinet member for Communities now Chair of
the PH

Content

This decision authorises the expenditure of
funding allocated to support the VCSE recovery strategy and enable
the Community Resilience Fund as follows:
Up to £660k one-off strategic grant investment in 31
community hubs and anchor organisations as set out in appendix
A
£76,634 to uplift Bristol Impact Fund 2 medium and large
grants for the period of the approved BIF2 extension from October
2025- March 2026
£150k for staff and capacity building for a two-year
extension of CRF from 1st April 2026 – 31st March 2028
subject to the PH