Bromley-based charity Greener and Cleaner is launching England’s first Community Sustainability Support Network (CSSN) thanks to a financial boost from Benefact Group through its annual Movement for Good Awards.
The donation is part of the specialist financial services group’s Partnership Funding programme, which sees 18 charities across the UK and Ireland receive a share of a £400,000 pot.
The funding is designed to help charities make a real difference in their communities, focusing on good causes working towards the advancement of education and skills, heritage, arts and culture, and climate change and environment. This generous support will enable the multi-award-winning charity Greener and Cleaner to launch the first Community Sustainability Support Network (CSSN) for England.
Parisa Wright, Founder of Greener and Cleaner, said:
“We are thrilled to be able to pilot this CSSN with the generous support of Benefact Group, to collaboratively help boost the efforts and grow the resilience of community sustainability projects and spaces across England.”
The first CSSN for England
The CSSN is a new, grassroots-focused initiative designed to build inclusivity, collaboration, and resilience in community-led sustainability projects and spaces. Its core mission is to facilitate vital knowledge and resource sharing across England.
Any community group, charity, or social enterprise delivering community sustainability work of any type can join and benefit at no charge. For example: repair cafes, community allotments, community energy companies, school uniform exchanges, friends of parks groups, scrap stores, community fridges, climate cafes, transition towns, community hubs and more.
Growing the resilience of community sustainability projects and spaces across England
The new network will focus on sharing learnings and templates, and collaboration on funding bids and delivery, to ensure members’ work is as impactful, inclusive, and resilient as possible.
There is an emphasis on inclusivity, intersectionality, and empowering climate-vulnerable communities to ensure effective, equitable, and widespread change, which also helps to address the polycrisis of our time.
Wright explained the need for community projects to have a unified support system:
“Community sustainability projects and spaces across England, from repair cafes to wellbeing gardens, or energy projects to community hubs, have a huge, positive impact on a wide range of pressures caused by the polycrisis facing people and public services daily.
“These spaces and projects actively build community sustainability, resilience and adaptability in a time where more extreme weather, health risks, unemployment, civil and international unrest, are a day-to-day threat to community stability and wellbeing.”
“Founders and project leads are facing rising pressures around funding, volunteers, service design, securing space, and more, with key community centres and spaces reducing year on year, and no free and unsiloed support structure to help ensure their success and longevity.”
Flexible funding for transformative projects
The Movement for Good Awards Partnership Funding provides charities with flexible funding that can be used within three years and for a blend of capital and running costs to support their projects.
Following an initial ‘Expression of Interest’ stage where charities gave a short overview of their work, 50 receive invitations to complete the full application form. Winning projects were selected against four key criteria: impact and effectiveness, sustainability, innovation, and care and compassion. Greener and Cleaner is celebrating after being selected as one of the recipients for the funding.
Championing innovation
Explaining more about partnership funding, Mark Hews, Group Chief Executive of Benefact Group, said:
“Benefact Group is owned by a charity, and giving back is at the heart of everything we do – all our available profits go to good causes. Our mission is simple: the more we grow, the more we can give.”
“We understand the importance of longer-term funding for charities, especially when trying to bring ambitious new ideas to life and get larger transformative projects off the ground, so we are delighted to be able to announce another series of transformational grants through our Partnership Funding.”
“Through these partnership grants, we are actively championing innovation, giving charities the backing they need to propel their plans forward and turn creative ideas into practical solutions that benefit society. I can’t wait to see how these projects develop.”
On top of the financial support, Benefact Group is using the Partnership Funding to build lasting partnerships with the winning charities, working alongside them to provide access to resources, including webinars, volunteering opportunities and support on delivering their projects.
Movement for Good is funded by EIO plc, part of the Benefact Group.
Greener and Cleaner’s CSSN can now begin in earnest. Stay tuned for updates on progress and joining details in due course.
