Funding available for your community activities
£500 grants to support your community: now open for applications!
- Do you want to support your community with their health and wellbeing?
- Do you have an idea for an event, activity or project that needs a bit of money to get it going?
- Will your activity take place in East Oldham district*?
Small grants of up to £500 are available to East Oldham residents and community groups to support activity that helps the community in East Oldham to ‘Live well’. We invite applicants who missed out on the previous grants.
Complete the short application form by 9am on Thursday 19 March. To find the form click or tap on this link to application form.
Need some support?
Discuss your idea and get support to complete an application form by coming to one of our drop-ins – you don’t need to book and can arrive anytime between the start time up to 15 minutes before the end of the session:
- 10.30-12.30 on Sat 28 February at Uppermill Library, Saddleworth House High Street, Oldham OL3 6BD
- 10am-12noon on Tues 3 March at Spring Meadows Family Hub, Leamington St, Oldham OL4 2RN
- 5.30-7.30pm on Tues 3 March at Sholver & Moorside Community Centre, Sholver Lane, Oldham OL1 4NT
*East Oldham district covers the council wards of St James, Waterhead, Saddleworth North, Saddleworth South, Saddleworth West and Lees.
Earlier grants.
In November and December individuals and community groups were able to apply for £500 funding to support activities that benefited the health and wellbeing of East Oldham residents. A funding panel of local residents and community leaders met each week to review applications and we are in the process of releasing these funds.
Voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise groups were also able to put forward proposals for how they would use £1000, £2000 or £5000 investment in their groups for benefit of East Oldham residents. Members of the public and applicants attended the Power to the People event on 3 December to vote for which group received which amount of funding. Following the event, 20 voluntary and community groups or social enterprises shared two-minute video pitches for investment in their work in East Oldham. East Oldham residents could vote online or through their local library to decide which 6 organisations received a £1000 top-up investment. You can find out more about the outcome of this, and see the video pitches, on our Power to the People webpage.
What is Live Well?
Live Well is Greater Manchester’s movement for community-led health and wellbeing. It's part of Andy Burnham’s Manifesto commitment for “everyone in every community to have daily access to support and advice to improve their physical and mental health and socio-economic status”.
The Greater Manchester Live Well Approach is all about making sure everyone has access to great everyday support—right in their own neighbourhood. It’s a movement that brings together local people, community groups, and public services to help everyone live healthier, happier lives.
Whether someone needs help with their health, money, work, or just wants to feel more connected, the Live Well approach is the way we are working together with residents in Oldham to make this better.
Live Well Centres and spaces are an important part of the approach they are welcoming places where people can drop in, get advice, join activities, or simply have a chat. The idea is to support people early—before problems get bigger—and to make sure everyone feels part of their community.
Live Well is also about giving people a voice. Local residents in Oldham are getting involved in making decisions about how funding is used to support their communities. This means the money goes to the things that matter most to local people and helps them Live Well in ways that work for them.
In Oldham, we are involving local people in deciding how funding is spent in their communities to help people live happier and healthier lives
The Design Jam is a workshop where people come together to work on a challenge or problem. The event was a mix of creativity, idea sharing and working together to come up with new ideas and solutions.
Attendees were challenged to work together with us to figure out how we can involve more local people in making decisions about how local funding is used, where it goes and what it pays for. Together, we set out to develop some really practical ways that we could try to do this - and then the best bit - try them out!
The Design Jam was a fun and friendly session, where no ideas are daft! We worked in small groups and did some interesting activities together that helped us to bring out our experiences and ideas. By the end of the day, we had some some ideas that we could test out together over the next 6 months - encouraging attendees to stay connected for that time and be involved in the testing of the ideas too.
Design Jam: Introducing Live Well
Our Big Ideas
At the Design Jam on March 2025, we asked groups to think about and discuss the following question:
‘How might decision makers in Oldham hear from more local people about what really matters to them and their communities?’ We asked the groups to write down their thoughts, to create their big ideas:
Big Idea 1: Community Engagement
Purpose: To use innovate ways to engage with the local communities within East Oldham to identify the priorities that matter to local people.
This idea is around engagement in local communities which allows people to have their voice heard on what is important to them and then to link into how funding (Big Idea 3) is distributed to make these ideas a reality.
Big Idea 2: The Live Well Collective
Purpose: To use innovate ways to engage with the local communities within East Oldham to identify the priorities that matter to local people.
This idea is to create a team of Community Researchers to work with local people to engage and gain insight into what is important to local people and what the priorities are.
Big Idea 3: Funding Events
Purpose: To use innovate ways to engage with the local communities within East Oldham (Big Ideas 1 and 2) to identify the priorities that matter to local people and create a way of allocating funding to support the delivery of these priorities.
This idea is to create an innovative way of allocating funding to local people and local community groups, which will support the priorities of the local community. Ensuring all voices are heard.
Attendees expressed an interest in continuing to work to develop these ideas, the commitment going forward involved working with us over the next 6 months to test their ideas, in the form of design meetings, attending events and giving feedback.
They were able to pick which Big Idea they would like to be involved in, and then invited to group sessions to discuss and decide how we move forward with this piece of work and to create an action plan for your group.
Each group was supported by a member of the Live Well team.
Building on work to test and learn around some of the big quetsions
In August 2025, after a few months of working with those who wanted to stay involved with their projects and develop their Big Ideas, we invited attendees back to begin the prototyping phase.
This session involved showcasing the work from each Big Idea so far, sharing learning with peers and also allowing room for questions to build progress.
One of the main outcomes of this session was to recognise how the Big Ideas linked to each other, and how each group could make sure they were working collaboratively towards a common goal.
Each group were tasked to create miniature prototypes of their Big Ideas, to test the logistics of their projects and also highlight any issues that might arise, as well as how these can be solved.
Design Jam 2: Prototyping Workshop
Review, Reflect and Next Steps!
In September 2025, the groups met up again to share their finding from applying their prototypes into real life events and decide what the next steps could look like.
This session was also used to review the models which were used for testing, to reflet on strengths and highlight areas for improvement. As well as a chance to review existing models and take influence from tried and tested methods of allocating funding to the community.
Design Jam 3 marked the end of the design and prototype phase and the introduction of the implementation phase. Those who wanted to continue with the work of Live Well and the Big Ideas were invited to share their interest to join a smaller group, and see their planning put into action.
Design Jam 3: Preparing for Implementation
Get in touch
If you'd like to know more about the fantastic work we're doing in East Oldham for the Live Well project, email Julie Goreham, Systems Change and Engagement Manager.
