People and communities
New report highlights the social return on investment of community grants
Published on
The ESF Community Grants Programme was launched in April 2019 with the aim of engaging with local community organisations to deliver a range of skills and employment support activities to enable people from the hardest to reach communities, who may have been experiencing multiple disadvantages, to make progress towards entering the job market.
The Programme was designed to assist small community and voluntary groups, charities or not-for-profit organisations based in and providing services in the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership area (Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and Wolverhampton). Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 were available with the aim to support local participants to secure positive outcomes including employment, traineeships, apprenticeships, training and further education.
During the lifetime of the programme, 80 organisations and 1151 participants across the Black Country have been supported, many who face the following barriers:
The Walsall Programme Management team acted as both lead accountable body and a delivery partner, managing the £1,500,000 fund provided jointly by Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the European Social Fund (ESF).
Following completion of the Community Grants Programme a Social Return on Investment Report was created to estimate the monetary benefit to the local and wider economy.
