A Fairer Clackmannanshire: Working together to reduce poverty and inequality

About this fund

Clackmannanshire's Transformation Space is a partnership between local residents, Clackmannanshire Council and funding partners. 

Money from the Council is 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. Through earlier funding rounds, Community Voice has worked to bring clarity and local context to some of the biggest challenges facing the county: preventing homelessness, improving mental health support for people under 25, improving support for women and girls, employment that lifts people out of poverty, and a better experience of finding and providing information.

This round is open to ideas that cut across all of these themes, and to new ideas that Community Voice has not yet heard. Our aim is not to design a fix, but to invite others to develop collaborative new approaches to the enduring challenges of poverty and inequality in Clackmannanshire.

Community Voice is also developing future rounds focused on addressing poverty and inequality by helping to build a better wellbeing economy in Clackmannanshire. This open round is separate and runs first. Organisations or groups that apply in this round will still be able to apply to the first wellbeing round if they align with the call. 

An organisation can submit only one application across this round.

Grant size

There are three routes to funding:

• Small grants of up to £5,000. Open to organisations with an annual turnover of up to £100,000. [this is your total income in your most recent annual accounts.] The project will be delivered within 12 months.
• Larger grants of up to £25,000. Open to organisations of any size. The project may be delivered over any period of up to 3 years.
• Continuation grants of up to £50,000. Open to organisations currently funded through the Transformation Space whose funded period ends before 31 March 2027 or it has already ended.  You will need to show that your funded project is already showing signs of impact and that there are clear opportunities for further development. The project may be delivered over any period of up to 3 years.

Your project may be about testing a new idea or scaling or deepening existing work. A project that is only continuing to deliver what you already do is not eligible in this round.

We anticipate this will 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.

Each organisation can submit only one application, across this round. We want organisations of all types and capacities to have a fair opportunity to apply, which is why there is a small grant route for smaller organisations alongside the larger and continuation routes. If you would like to talk through which route suits you, or need help with the application, please get in touch using the contact details at the end of this call.

Purpose of this fund

Poverty and inequality in Clackmannanshire are enduring, and they show up in many connected ways. Across the earlier rounds of the Transformation Space, local residents described the same underlying pressures from different directions: the cost of living, too few good local jobs, housing insecurity, poor mental health, the impact of abusive relationships, and services that are hard to find and hard to navigate.

These challenges rarely sit neatly in one box. A person at risk of homelessness may also be struggling with debt, mental health or an unsafe relationship, and may not know where to turn. Single-issue responses, however well-intentioned, can miss the connections between them.

Section 1 – What we know
The picture below draws on what Community Voice and local organisations have shared through earlier funding rounds. Here's what we have learned so far or has been reinforced:

• Poverty runs through everything. Around one in four children in Clackmannanshire lives in poverty, and poverty is one of the biggest drivers of poor mental health. Even where someone in the family is working, low pay and limited opportunities mean many households are still living in poverty. 
• Reliable local, well paid work is scarce. There is only one job available for every two working-age residents, and rural geography and travel networks make it harder still for people who need to work close to home.
• Housing is precarious for many. Around one person in every 100 in Clackmannanshire can be described as homeless, the second highest regional rate in Scotland. Many people at risk are hidden from the data, including those in private rented housing, young people leaving care and older people facing fuel poverty
• Young people face new pressures. Concerns about stigma, long waits for support, unstable work and rising living costs affect young people's mental health and their hopes for the future.
• Violence against women and girls remains a significant issue. Clackmannanshire has some of the highest recorded levels of violence against women in Scotland, with long-lasting effects on health, finances, housing and children.
• Support can be hard to find and use. Residents describe services that are confusing, inconsistent or not joined up, and people often do not know what help exists or feel they will be believed.
• These issues overlap and reinforce one another. Trauma, debt, poor housing, poor health and isolation can pass from one generation to the next, and the pressure on crisis services grows when problems are not addressed early. 
• The value of lived experience. People with lived experience, and the organisations that work alongside them, often have the best insight into what would really help. 

Section 2 – A vision to work towards
As a group, we have imagined an alternative future for Clackmannanshire. We have described below what Clackmannanshire would need to look and feel like to be a place where poverty and inequality are reducing. These are not suggested solutions; they are eventual, longer-term outcomes that we hope might emerge from the work we choose to fund. 

In a future Clackmannanshire, people have what they need to live well:

• Good-quality local work, paying fairly, is available to people who want or need it, and working lifts families out of poverty.
• People have secure, affordable and good-quality homes, and rarely reach the point of being at risk of homelessness.
• Money worries are caught early, and people know their rights and where to get practical help.

In a future Clackmannanshire, people feel safe, respected and connected:

• There is no stigma attached to asking for help, whether for money, housing, mental health or safety.
• Women, girls, young people and others who are too often unheard are listened to and believed.
• Neighbours and communities look out for one another, and local people have more say over decisions that affect them.

In a future Clackmannanshire, support feels different:

• Information is clear, easy to find and consistent, so people always know where to go.
• Services and community organisations work as one connected system, and the first person someone speaks to knows how to help.
• Lived experience continues to shape how services are designed and delivered.

In a future Clackmannanshire, the local economy works for local people:

• Money circulates locally through local businesses, social enterprises and community organisations.
• Inequality between neighbourhoods and between generations is narrowing.
• Fewer people need crisis support because problems are prevented earlier.

Additional criteria

We welcome applications that fit Foundation Scotland's common eligibility criteria. Please contact us if you are unsure about your eligibility.

The grant you are applying for may cover the full cost of the project or just part of it. If you are 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 poverty or financial insecurity 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 where consideration has also been given to one or more of the following:

• Local capacity building and collaboration: How will you work in partnership with other organisations, groups or agencies to avoid duplication, reduce confusion and create better impact.
• 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 or 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?

People have recognized compounding nature of poverty and inequality – not single issue proposals. 

Timescales
Please submit your completed application by midnight on 9th December. We aim to make funding decisions in late February 2027.

Who can apply?

The Community Voice Group wants to fund projects and activity that contribute towards the future described above. We understand that there will be many different ways to approach this, not a single solution, so if you have an idea that addresses any of the root causes of poverty and inequality in Clackmannanshire, please consider applying. Your project may relate to one or more of the themes of earlier rounds (homelessness, mental health support for people under 25, support for women and girls, employment, and information and communication), or it may be something new.

They would particularly love to receive applications that:

• are deeply informed by the ideas and insights of people with lived experience of poverty and inequality,
• recognise the value of local knowledge, expertise and skills when it comes to delivering activities,
• are collaborative, and see this as an opportunity to develop or test partnership working that could form the basis of future joint funding applications or longer-term programmes,
• work across more than one issue, or bring together organisations that do not usually work together.

Organisations currently funded through the Transformation Space

If your Transformation Space grant ends before 31 March  2027 or has already ended, you are welcome to apply for up to £50,000 if you can demonstrate that the funded project is already showing signs of impact and there are clear opportunities for further development. In your application, please tell us:

• what impact your project is already having, and how you know (this can include early evidence, feedback from participants and partners, and what you have learned),
• what the clear opportunities are for further development, such as reaching more people, deepening the work, testing it in new places or with new partners, or making it more sustainable,
• how people with lived experience have shaped and will continue to shape the work.

Because each organisation can submit only one application, if you are currently funded you will need to choose between a continuation grant and applying for something new.

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.