Micro Grants

Al-Abbas Institute

Our idea/project is to provide a three hour interactive workshop each month for the next six months. Six workshops will be delivered, addressing a range of issues of concern for the BAME and refugee communities. 

Andalucia Learning Centre

We would like to provide a six-week session of ceramics to attract women who face isolation and who are going through a tough time due to cost of living, or other difficulties such a health or family matter.

Become United

The name of our project is 'BAME Women's Wellbeing Sessions', which aims to provide a series of five wellbeing sessions for women from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in Rochdale. The sessions will focus on different arts and crafts activities and incorporate various wellbeing practices. The project is a new initiative that will run for five weeks.

Freehold Pantry

This grant will help us to buy essential food items such as oil, milk, bread and eggs to give out to our members each week. We currently buy food from FairShare but these items usually are very rare. We believe if we have some funding to support buying theses essential items it will help families reduce weekly spending.

Johnny Alfrey Music Memorial

During the summer of 2023 we will have a promotion drive with a gazebo/stall for awareness raising and promotion. We would like to take advantage of all the summer events to promote the work of our organisation and recruit people to join our six-week pilot at the end of the summer. We will be involving some of our young members and mentors who volunteered and learnt skills throughout the development of our event to make sure we get people interested who might otherwise be on the margins of communities of music lovers and want to be more involved.

Kashmiri Productions UK

£1,184

We have organised second, not-for-profit film festival to be held on 15 July 2023 at the Reel Cinema in town. The purpose of the festival is to provide a platform to filmmakers and communities to come together, produce short films based on Kashmiri culture and language and then share the end result on cinema screen with mixed audience and be proud of your heritage.

Kirkholt Community Church

£1,140

During the cold weather we opened our building as a Warm Welcome Space. This ceased at the end of March, but we felt that people still needed support and are still being effected by the cost of living crisis, so we decided to keep our doors open. We are doing this by offering free breakfast to all who come in on a Tuesday morning 9-11:30am this is our 'Welcome Space'. We also have just started up a Men’s Space which we hold in our main hall. This is for men to come and play darts, table tennis, cards, dominoes and other games as well as having a free breakfast together. This runs at the same time as the Welcome Space. Both of these groups are there to reduce the effects of social isolation, build friendships and boost mental health and wellbeing.  We would like to use that grant towards the cost of food for the free breakfast, some extra plates, cups and cutlery and if possible to buy some more board games, puzzle books etc. for the men.

Kirkholt Pantry

Our local pantry is a food members club run by local volunteers to tackle food poverty. The group was setup in 2007 by the local community, after identifying a need. Each member is given a bag of food including fresh fruit and vegetables, rice paste, bread, milk, eggs, sugar and cooking oil. The food is mostly purchased through FareShare, but sometimes there are certain food items are not available to to the lack of surplus food available.

Lamet Habayeb Association

Recently, we have a greater number of women who approach us for their wellbeing and mental health. Because of the stigma associated with this issue in our Arabic culture, they find it even more difficult to talk about it, even to close relatives. Through this project, we try to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and the need to seek professional advice. These issues will be discussed with the ladies through an informal way while having fun, walking in a park, doing some arts and crafts, writing, or while having a cup of tea. The project will run once a week during June-August. 

Love What You Do (Manchester) Ltd

£1,162

Service-delivery involves ‘interactive/educational employment-support-tutorials’, which include a CV-writing support-service. Tutorials discuss essential aspects of job-application processes, whilst supporting IT-literacy. Depending on individual-requirements, this can extend into offering career-guidance or signposting to other training-opportunities. 

New Life Community Church, Milnrow

Healing: We want to include those who have been referred to us by local GPs with mental health issues to allow relationship and wellbeing support.  We have counselling facility for debt management, family support or further signposting should those next steps be required.  We want to walk with families for them to recognise their plan and purpose for the future.

Arts: We will have an arts and crafts package for each event around a theme e.g our April event is Coronation themed for families to make decorations and take home to use for the King’s Coronation. This will be suitable for all ages. Some crafts are taken home, other artwork will create bigger, collaborative displays.

Pennine Voluntary Stroke Group

£1,199

The Pennine Stroke Support Group meets at Castleton Community Centre every alternate Monday, excluding bank holidays. There are a number of outings and special celebratory parties planned over the coming months when the normal Monday meet will not take place. For the remaining twelve Monday meetings it is hoped to be able to invite various speakers. The cost of hiring a speaker varies considerably from free to over £100, however, on average we expect to pay approximately £35 per session. We also provide refreshments; tea, coffee, cakes, biscuits and fruit, costing approximately £20 per session.

Rochdale Dawah Centre

£1,182

The name of our project is the Homework Club for BAME Teens, which aims to provide additional academic support to students from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds who are preparing for their exams. The project will consist of four structured sessions, each lasting for two hours, and will be delivered in partnership with local schools and community centres in the Rochdale area.

Rochdale Science Initiative C.I.C

This project will be in two parts: (1) three workshops on health and wellbeing, (2) Eid Science Extravaganza

1. Rochdale Science Initiative C.I.C (RSI) community engagement and outreach leads are trained to provide information, support, and advice related to mental health and wellbeing. RSI will design three workshops on mental health and wellbeing. These presentations will be free and tailored to the interests and needs of particular local groups (young people, women, and men). We will provide age-appropriate, researched based, interactive, and solution focused workshops. The workshops will be designed to be fun, educational, and uplifting so that participants are informed and hopeful.
2. The Muslim celebration of Eid is a joyous occasion. It is a time for families and friends to come together and rejoice. It is also an occasion for Muslims to be mindful of families within the wider community who may be struggling, so no one is left out. Eid celebration also aims to create a feeling of good will and communal unity.

Smallbridge Pantry

£600

Our local pantry is a food members club run by local volunteers to tackle food poverty. The group was setup in 2007 by the local community after identifying a need. Each member is given a bag of food including fresh fruit and vegetables, rice paste, bread, milk, eggs, sugar and cooking oil. The food is mostly purchased through FareShare but sometimes there are certain food items are not available to to the lack of surplus food available.

Stars and Stitches CIC

Working with the theme of 'Journeys' we will create collaborative art, consulting with participants every step of the way. The outcome may be a quilt a collaborative handmade book or something else entirely dependent on participants wishes. We have plenty of materials in stock and will aim to use these as well as recycled materials – however are applying for fabric and paint as we find that when we work with this group these materials are popular. We have worked with High Level since 2021 running courses of art workshops as and when funding permits. This is a new project which will run for six weeks.
 

Strawberry Moon Wellness CIC

£1,162

The Peaceful Pregnancy Project is new six-week yoga and wellbeing project that runs two yoga classes each week. One pregnancy yoga class and one rainbow pregnancy yoga class (pregnancy after loss). Twelve women and birthing people can attend each class; therefore 24 people can access the project this time.

Thrive with Tracey

£1,197

We have spoken to the individuals and they need some 1-2-1 support. It needs to be a personalised approach with somebody who knows them well and who they can trust. We would like to spend time with individuals to help them to open up, overcome barriers and work together to find solutions of their choice for them to return to society and become active, social, flexible, and more mobile. 

Al-Abbas Institute

The project is to provide a three-hour interactive workshop each month for the next six months. Six workshops will be delivered addressing a range of issues for the BAME and refugee communities.

• Workshop 1 - support positive health and well-being including mental health for children and young people (ages 11-16 years) from the BAME and refugee communities.
• Workshop 2 will be a drop in session to support culture specific positive mental and health well-being for adult residents from the BAME and refugee communities.
• Workshop 3 will focus on safeguarding by highlighting and discussing strategies to avoid all forms of exploitation including online exploitation for children and young people (ages 11-16 years) from the BAME and refugee communities.
• Workshop 4 will focus on avoiding and the dangers of anti-social behaviour for children and young people (ages 11-16 years) from the BAME and refugee communities.
• Workshop 5 will be a drop in session providing practical financial advice on services available for adult residents from the BAME and refugee communities. This workshop will provide advice to help with the cost of living crisis.
• Workshop 6 will be an open and drop in session where adults from the BAME and refugee communities can feedback to us of the difficulties they are experiencing in their daily lives. This session will ensure their voices are heard and from this session, we aim to develop further support sessions and sign post to services available.

Angie's Angels Community
Group CIC

£1,196

We run a community café, and food cupboard which serves healthy food at an extremely low price in a warm safe friendly environment, to help people struggling with the current cost of living crisis or struggling with isolation. The café runs a pay what you can afford scheme, and a pay it forward scheme, meaning people who can afford to, can pay it forward for people with low to no funds, this fund is extremely valuable and used by several people from extremely different backgrounds.

Bangladeshi Arts and Sports Association

Support between 30-40 women who would like to participate in a weekly Zumba class delivered by professional services. The class will be delivered locally at a Community Centre and additional measures will be put in place for the comfort and safety of the participants. The classes will be on a weekly basis and last 12 weeks in total.

Clearview4u CIC Counselling Services Heywood

This is part of an ongoing project and priority of the CIC, we offer a donation based/free counselling service with local Counselling students in their 100 hour placement. The management team are volunteers of the CIC as well as the students. Local residents across the borough receive counselling sessions for free or a donation.

Creative Health and Wellbeing and CIC Company

£1,176

This four week project supports adults over 60, Carers and Adults with Learning Difficulties to access social support networks through regular art and cultural activities and is aimed at people from all cultures in Rochdale and in areas of deprivation. The sessions are delivered in warm, welcoming community spaces. Over four sessions at Deeplish Community Centre and Heady Hill Community Centre Creative Health will deliver art, craft and cultural events for our participants to get involved with. 

Darnhill Community Cafe

£1,176

Our main aim is to recruit volunteers to support the community by working in the café. Their duties to include all aspects of catering along with training and gaining NVQs that could help them in future employment plus volunteers that would support older and disabled residents access the café bringing them out of isolation to a safe place to meet old friends and new and possibly get them involved with the groups that have set up in the library building since we opened the café.

Deaf Rhinos

This is an innovative project designed to empower the deaf community in the Rochdale Borough and enhance their social, mental, and physical wellbeing. With the support of the micro grant, we aim to deliver a comprehensive range of activities and initiatives that address the unique challenges faced by the deaf population.

Get Together After Serving CIC

This funding is targeted at supporting veterans facing financial constraints, enabling their participation in football and club/organisation activities. It will cover membership fees, provide essential kits, and help with logistical challenges, such as transportation expenses, ensuring their access to sessions. Additionally, a significant portion of the funding will be allocated to subsidizing training facilities, especially during the costly winter months.

Go Local HGV Driver Training CIC

The grant will enable us to buy parking posts/barriers that are needed for training people on 3a Training. We would also like to put signage on our training vehicles, as this will enable others in the local area to identify us as we drive around the area training people and contact us so we can help and support more local people.

Hamer Amateur Boxing Club and Community Fitness Centre

We are offering one free Cost of Living boxing session per week for our members, at this session we will also be offering the opportunity for a 1-1 chat with our coaches and staff about Cost of Living and any challenges they are facing that we can support with. Some people feel more comfortable talking to us about their issues as we are a familiar, friendly club - than going to the Council.  

Infinity Initiatives CIC

We will provide a counselling service to Rochdale residents. This service will be free of charge and without time restraints understanding that it takes time to build relations with clients. Sessions will be delivered from The Sanctuary Trust building in the heart of Rochdale to ensure easy access via good transport links. Referrals will be made from The Sanctuary Trust and Angies Angels in the first instance owing to our existing partnership and the desire to build upon this to offer a high-quality wrap around care service to individuals and their families. This will include:

• Access to food and emergency food parcels
• Advocacy and support
• Access to activities and peer-led support
• Signposting and referrals to specialist services

Lock 50 Community Group

Lock 50 Gardening Project, Rochdale Bike Library and Blooming Marvellous Strand Hub Gardens: All three programmes have been running for a number of years and it was identified that it was difficult to secure funding to provide continued support. These are all projects staffed by volunteers that have an emphasis on using green spaces for health and wellbeing.

Maverick Lab CIC

Our proposal aims to establish a comprehensive program of tennis sessions designed specifically for adults residing in Rochdale. The program will consist of a series of group lessons and open play opportunities, encouraging participants of all skill levels to engage in this popular sport. Our experienced and certified tennis instructors will provide expert guidance, ensuring that participants receive professional coaching in a fun and supportive environment

Nigeria Community Association

The Nigeria Community Association would like to apply for funding to host a boroughwide celebration entitled ‘The Festival of African Art, Culture, Dance and Awards’ to celebrate Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day and Black History month. The event will take place on Sunday 1st of October 2023.

Q Gardens

We want to expand our impact by inviting nine other groups, such as scouts, schools, art groups and other community groups to join us in making an ‘Artistic Horticultural Installation’. The project is to use a 9x9m area, divided into 1m squares, and to allocate one square to each group to design, such that the end result is a mosaic of plants and other materials. 

Rochdale Borough Shopmobility

We would use the Grant to pay for our annual service 2023/24 of our 14 Mobility Scooters and 2 Wheelchairs and towards any repairs arising from said Annual service. This would be part of our Annual Service and Repair Programme.

Rochdale Hornets Sporting Foundation

We aim to foster a significant uplift in the number of children and Adults in the Rochdale area accessing rugby league and physical activity programmes supported and delivered by the Rochdale Hornets Sporting Foundation and we will be running two new teams from 2023 onwards, a Physical Disability Rugby League team (PDRL) and a Learning Disability Rugby League team (LDRL) that are open to all ages.

Rochdale Masters

With previous support from Action Together we formed the Rochdale Masters’ a club that gives men over the age of 35 the opportunity to come together and represent the town of Rochdale in the game of Rugby League. The club was established in July 2021 and to date have had 68 players representing the club and earning themselves a club heritage number. We intend to use the funding to support the costs of hiring of training facilities and transport throughout the season

Rochdale Mayfield ARLFC

£1,171

Project ‘Building the Future’ provides a fun engaging environment to introduce children from primary schools within the Borough of Rochdale to the sport of Rugby League. Coaches from Rochdale Mayfield ARLFC & Rochdale Masters are out in the local community providing six-week blocks of Rugby League delivery for classes during and after curriculum time.

Spotland Community Centre

We are pleased to submit our bid: organizing a vibrant and engaging Fun Festival for families at Spotland Community Centre. Our organisation has a proven track record of successfully executing community events, and we are excited about the opportunity to bring joy, entertainment, and cultural experiences to the local community.

Your Home Yoga Community Interest Company

We hope to be able to continue to offer our free, weekly online Guided Relaxation session and reach a much wider audience over the next six months. Each session runs from 9pm-9.40pm on Tuesday evenings, via Zoom and is accessible to any one with hearing. Everybody is welcome. Participants can take part from the comfort of their own bed/ seated, wherever they are most comfortable. There is no need for any movement, the only requirement is a device (mobile phone, laptop, tablet) from which to listen. Cameras can be off. They only need to be able to hear us.

We are offering a 12-week program which is designed to bridge a critical gap between a child attempting suicide and receiving Government funded mental health treatment. Over a 12-month period; we will provide a crisis service tailored to address the immediate needs of these vulnerable individuals. Our program; comprising both one-on-one therapy sessions and group sessions; will offer crucial support and engagement through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and resilience training. Support work with 30 families; helping parents learn now skills to keep their child safe. 

The Co-operative Heritage Trust CIO

This is an exciting new project for the Co-operative Heritage Trust (CHT) to create a hands on learning resource. It will be full of activities, replica artefacts and tactile objects designed to spark conversation and engage communities to think in more detail about the food they eat.  ‘Shopping with the Pioneers’ will be a free learning box for early years centres, schools and community groups to take to their setting and learn through play and exploration of the box.