£13,000 awarded to community groups

Grassroots Grants in Tower Hamlets began with the award of over £13,000 to five community groups. This new grants programme opened to the community in July this year. The panel, which includes members from local community groups, met on the 29th of September to assess the first set of applications sent in by groups eager to benefit from a grant. St Katharine and Shadwell Trust, the Community Foundation for the East End and City, is administering the programme for Tower Hamlets and the City of London.

Grants are awarded for activities that:
- encourage people to play an active part in making their neighbourhood a better place
- work to build positive relations and understanding between different sections of the community
- address training needs of staff and volunteers and
- address a specific problem in the community

Grassroots Grants is a three-year programme running until March 2011. It offers grants of up to £5,000 to small community and voluntary sector groups with an income of less than £20,000 a year.

It is funded by the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) and administered by the Community Development Foundation (CDF).

For an application form, contact the Trust on 020 7782 6962 or email enquiries@skst.org.
For more information visit www.skst.org/grassrootsgrants.

The next panel meeting will be on the 10th of November 2008, application forms must be in at least two weeks before.