Community Voice Clackmannanshire: Employment that can lift people out of poverty

About this fund

Clackmannanshire's Transformation Space is a partnership between local residents, Clackmannanshire Council and funding partners. Money from the Council will be pooled with external funding to create a new resource to support projects and initiatives which address issues affecting those who live and work in Clackmannanshire. This represents a radical shift towards a preventative and relational model of public services, seeking to support work which provides early intervention for issues in new, collaborative ways.

Residents of Clackmannanshire have gathered to form Community Voice, a group that represents the experience and expertise of those living in the area.  

As a small sub-group, we have worked together with Foundation Scotland, bringing our own experiences, along with stories from others living in the county, to bring some clarity and local context to the challenge this fund aims to tackle. Not to try and design a fix but to describe the best problems to solve. Our aim is to inspire, encourage and invite others to develop ideas for new approaches and services that could contribute to local employment that can lift people out of poverty.  

Community Voice has £400,000 to distribute in this round. You can apply for any amount up to that level. Your project may be for one year or less or up to three years. Your project may be about testing an idea or scaling existing work. We anticipate this may be a competitive round so please talk to other groups or organisations you think might be applying and consider where you can collaborate or work together. 

Purpose of this fund

Clackmannanshire has a low jobs density which means that there is only one job available for every two working-aged people. The County’s rural nature and travel networks can mean that employment is even more difficult to find and maintain for people who want or need to work near their home.

Even if families have one person in employment, many are still considered to be living in poverty due to low pay and restricted opportunities. Families in working poverty are more likely to have young children.  

So, while it’s important to improve work opportunities and an individual’s skill levels with the aim of improving ‘employability’, the wider aim of improving the quality of employment to ensure that working can lift people out of poverty requires many other considerations.

This fund is all about taking that holistic approach. We’re looking for new ideas (possibly from unexpected places) that can help to build a Clackmannanshire approach to employment that helps people out of poverty and into a life where they can thrive. 

Context 
Since ‘employability’ is such a broad, intergenerational and immediate challenge, we sought out the concerns and experiences in two different settings.  

Firstly, as discussions among local residents. Secondly at a local high school, bringing young people approaching school-leaving age together with local employers to listen to each other and learn from each other’s experiences.

We didn’t do this to design solutions, but to discover and describe the best problems to solve. Our aim is to inspire, encourage and invite others to develop ideas for new approaches and services that could contribute to local employment that can lift people out of poverty.

We encourage applicants to read the insights from both discussions to inform and guide your proposals and ensure that they address local concerns and hopes.

Context 1 – insights from discussions among local residents.

Context 2 - insights from discussions between young people and local employers 

Additional criteria

We welcome applications that fit Foundation Scotland’s broad funding criteria. So before progressing with your application please read our common eligibility criteria. Please contact us if you are unsure about your eligibility.

You can apply for a small grant (up to £10,000) or a larger amount (£10,000 or above). Your project may be about testing an idea or scaling existing work. Grants can also be multi-year, up to a maximum of three years. 

In this round you can also submit an Expression of Interest. This may outline an idea or project you have not had time to develop yet into a full proposal. The Expressions of Interest will be considered alongside any full applications received. We will follow up with an invitation to submit a full application if the Panel want to pursue it and funding does not get fully committed to applications received.

Please note you can submit both an application for a project and an Expression of Interest for a second project.

The grant you are applying for may cover the full cost of the project or just part of it. If you're only asking for part of the costs, please indicate if the other funding is in place or where you plan for it to come from.  We consider it essential that people with experience of precarious employment or periods of unemployment participate in your work in some way so please be sure to tell us about this aspect of your project in your proposal.

The Community Voice Group will prioritise proposals and expressions of interest where consideration has also been given to one or more of the following:

• Local capacity building and collaboration: How you will work in partnership with other organisations, groups or agencies that can add value to the project and really help it make a difference? (They may be voluntary, private, or public sector groups or agencies, at a regional or national level).
• Supporting the local economy: Local suppliers will be used to provide goods and services, where appropriate. ‘Local’ will vary depending on the nature and availability of the item/service in question.
• Care for our environment: Minimising the environmental impact or 'carbon footprint' of the project. What steps are you taking to address this?   

Timescales 
Please submit your completed application by 5pm, 16 February 2025. We aim to make funding decisions within 6 weeks of this date. 

Who can apply?

The Community Voice Group wants to fund projects that contribute to employment solutions that lift people out of poverty. We understand that there will be different ways to approach this, not a single solution, so if you have an idea that addresses any of the root causes around this issue, please consider applying.  

What can’t be funded?

Information on what the fund cannot support is provided here.  

How are decisions made?

Decisions about how the funding is distributed will be made by the Community Voice residents group.  

You can read more about how funding decisions are made.