QFUTURES Community Fund (East Riding)

The QFUTURES Community Fund aims to make a real difference to people living and working in rural communities, recognising the importance of access to employment and training opportunities. We are looking for engaging community initiatives focused on training and employment opportunities that are led and co-created to meet specific local and rural needs.

Fund priorities

Projects must be focused on creating employment and/or training opportunities for those who face barriers. To help organisations deepen their impact, these grants are offered as multi-year grants covering three years.

Priority will be given to applications demonstrating strong alignment with specific local needs, focusing on training and skills development and/or employment opportunities for one or more of the following:

• Underrepresented groups and marginalised communities
• Those impacted by neurodiversity
• Women and girls

Examples of projects that could be funded (this is not an exhaustive list):

• Enhancing employability through formal and accredited skills, training, and education.
• Life skills development focusing on skills and transferable skills that help people on the pathway to employability
• Pop-up learning hubs to increase access to training facilities
• Digital literacy workshops
• CV development focusing on transferable skills (e.g., digital, customer service, green skills)
• Remote learning options for those unable to travel
• Multi-skill training so workers can switch sectors seasonally
• Training in entrepreneurship for rural start-ups
• Building shared training resources
• Developing family-friendly learning environments
• Childcare and travel expenses to access any of the above, or similar

What grants can be used for

You can apply for direct activity/project costs and pilot projects. Grants can fund 100% of the activity costs or can be part of a combination of funding to meet the full amount needed, however it is unlikely that priority will be given to projects where the grant award would represent less than 20% of the total project cost. If you are applying for a percentage of the total costs, please tell us what other funding has been secured or how you will secure the remaining funds.

Below are some examples of the type of costs that could be supported:

• Staff and/or freelancer costs to deliver the activity
• Producing training and employment support resources
• Staff and trustee training
• Volunteer training and management
• Enabling work placements
• Life skills training, such as literacy, communication, and IT
• Travel costs and childcare to enable training attendance as part of this funded project

We can support a Full Cost Recovery contribution towards core overhead costs (rent/ heating/ lighting etc) as part of your application. However, we cannot accept applications where overhead costs are a large proportion of the requested amount. Please note that overhead costs must not include any costs associated with commission-based payments for fundraising.