The opportunity

What is the opportunity?

We are now recruiting 15 community organisations across the UK to become our Connection Trailblazers. Organisations will receive a fantastic opportunity to develop their community connection practice. We will provide a flexible mix of funding and support over an 18-month period, from January 2025 to June 2026 consisting of:

• A grant of £20,000. We envisage this being used to do things like free up staff capacity and backfill roles to enable you to further your connection work. But we're very flexible about how it might be used, so are keen to hear creative ideas for how this money might support transformative community connection.
  

• 12 days of relationship manager support. This will be provided by the relevant national partner organisation to support you to develop your idea and overcome barriers. There will be additional support from the programme team to draw out learning and measure impact.
  

• Funding to cover a senior leader’s time to participate in an exciting new leadership development programme. This will develop our Trailblazers as a cohort of community connection leaders, who are able to drive local systems change and advocate on a national stage.

The leadership development programme will include:

• Opportunities to come together as a cohort at regular intervals to reflect on your local work, share progress, and receive peer mentoring support.
  

• External learning opportunities including online training to upskill in evidence gathering, impact measurement, advocacy and storytelling.
  

• Residential sessions at the start and end of the programme where you will be able to build relationships with the wider cohort and reflect on the challenges and opportunities of your own project.

At the end of the 18-month period, from July 2026 – March 2027, we will work together to share the learning from the Connection Trailblazers programme to achieve wider impact.

What type of activity are you looking to support?

The programme is built around the following four principles:

• Transforming practice: we want to support community organisations to build from where they currently are, whether that’s trialling a new approach, or developing existing ones in bigger or different ways.

• Bridging relationships: we want to support community organisations to strengthen relationships between people from different backgrounds and with different experiences of life. This can be thought of in terms of building “bridging social capital”, which is about strengthening relationships “between social groups, social class, race, religion or other important sociodemographic or socioeconomic characteristics.” This is different to the idea of “bonding social capital”, which is about strengthening social ties between people who are already similar or in the same group.

• Community power: we want to help harness this broad-based community connection as a platform for people to shape the future of their neighbourhoods. So it’s not just about bringing people together, it’s how those relationships can then influence and change local power structures and service systems.

• Equity: we want to support community organisations to create this powerful community connection in neighbourhoods and with communities who experience structural disadvantage. So this might mean you work in a disadvantaged neighbourhood (as measured, for example, by the Index of Multiple Deprivation), are led by and/or support racialised or minoritised communities, or disabled people.

Can you provide some examples of what you are looking to support?

We know there are a huge number of different ways community organisations create community connection. We are therefore not prescriptive about what our Trailblazers will be focussed on.

However, to help illustrate the kinds of activity we might support, here we have provided a list of some of the different methods which we see our members using to bring people together.

It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list, and that, by themselves, these methods might not achieve all of the programme principles set out above. For example, they may just focus on one community and not build relationships that bridge divides. Or they might build strong relationships but not address wider power imbalances. But each of these approaches has potential to create transformative community connection.

• Community development - bringing people together to take action on what's important to them, to create change and challenge disadvantage.
  

• Community organising – engaging and empowering local people to have a voice in policies and actions that affect them.
  

• Community engagement – using a range of techniques to ensure people participate in important discussions, processes and activities.
  

• Neighbourhood planning – people coming together to set out a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of their local area.

• Co-designing services - bringing people together to shape local services affecting the community.
  

• Participatory budgeting – bringing people together to decide how funds should be allocated.
  

• Deliberative democracy – giving people a direct route to participate in decisions which affect them, based on the principle that everyone has an equal contribution to make, where deliberation – open, free, and fair discussion – is central to decision-making.
  

• Bridge building - running activities at grassroots community level to reduce prejudice and hostility between different groups and in helping people to live peacefully alongside each other.
  

• Participatory research – designing research methods and frameworks that collaborate with those affected by an issue being studied for the purpose of action or change.
  

• Community-owned assets – local people owning important local buildings and spaces.

• Mutual aid - giving support to others in the local community, for instance with simple everyday tasks like shopping, or providing more specialised services such as listening to reduce isolation and loneliness.

• Peer support - where people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other.

How will the Connection Trailblazers be distributed across the UK?

We will be supporting 15 organisations across the UK – seven in England, four in Scotland, two in Wales and two in Northern Ireland.

What can I use the £20,000 grant for?

We envisage this being used to do things like free up staff capacity and backfill roles to enable you to further your connection work. But we are very flexible about how it might be used, so are keen to hear creative ideas for how this money might support transformative community connection.

Process

How do I express interest in this opportunity?

Unfortunately the deadline for expressing an interest in this programme was 9am on Monday 2 December 2024.

What are the application questions?

1. Please tell us why you want to be a Connectors-UK Trailblazer?

Help text: We’d be interested to know about your community, why the programme resonates with you personally and how you see the local opportunities and challenges. (Max 200 words)

2. Briefly describe what you want to do and what you want to achieve through the programme. (Max 200 words)

3. Please set out how your organisation and the project will address the four programme principles set out above:

a) How do you already, or will you through this programme, build bridging relationships? (Max 200 words)

Help text: A good answer would use examples to show how you are strengthening connection between people from different backgrounds and with different experiences of life, or describe how you plan to do this through the programme.

b) How do you already, or will you through this programme, use this broad-based community connection as a platform for community power? (Max 200 words)

Help text: A good answer would use examples to show how you are enabling local people to positively shape the future of their neighbourhoods, or describe how you plan to do this.

c) How is your work focused on equity? (Max 200 words)

Help text: A good answer would use examples to show how you are building community connection in neighbourhoods and with communities who experience structural disadvantage, or describe how you plan to do this. This might be working in an area of multiple disadvantage, supporting people from racialised or minoritised communities, or supporting disabled people.

d) How will this programme help you transform your practice? (Max 200 words)

Help text: A good answer might describe how you plan to trial new ways of working, improve something you’re doing already, or expand existing methods into different areas.

4. Please tell us how you intend to monitor and measure the projects and where you foresee challenges? (Max 150 words)

5. Please tell us about how this programme would connect with your organisation’s overall strategy, and that of any partners or key stakeholders? (Max 150 words)

6. Please tell us how you might spend the grant. We are not looking for a detailed budget, just a broad indication of how it might support your connection plans. (Max 150 words)

7. This is an 18-month programme of work. While we are providing resources, it will also require commitment and capacity from Trailblazer organisations to work with us for the duration of the programme.

• Are you able to commit to participate in all of the elements listed above? YES/NO

• Do you foresee any risks to your ongoing participation? If so, how might they be mitigated? (Max 100 words)

• Looking at the programme outline, what do you anticipate will be the most significant challenges that will have to be overcome in this work? (Max 100 words)

Can I save the form and return to my answers?

You will need to complete the form in one session. It is not possible to return to your application at a later date. We recommend you complete your responses offline to allow easy editing before adding them to the form. Please note questions are limited by word count. Please keep a copy of your responses for your records.

Can I complete the application form on behalf of someone else in my organisation who would lead the project and/or participate in the leadership development programme?

Yes, this is fine. If your application is successful, we will need to confirm the primary contact for your project before the project start date.

Am I required to submit a budget breakdown for the £20,000 grant?

You are not required to submit this as part of your application, but you should summarise how you will spend this in your response to Question 6. We will work with you to help develop a more detailed budget if your application is successful.

How will the applications be scored?

We will use a consistent and transparent scoring system for all responses in the applications we receive. You can find details of the scoring system below.

When is the deadline for submitting applications?

The deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 2 December 2024.

Why are you asking for bank details?

If your application reaches our final panel stages, we will undertake a due diligence process on your organisation to ensure we are comfortable your organisation can commit to the full life of the programme. Your bank statement, bank details, accounts and company registration give us the details we need to undertake these checks.

We will hold your bank details safely in an encrypted location, according to our privacy policy.

We will also use these bank details to send your grant, if successful.