Green Capital 2015 – Grants

logo-bristol2015-2row-@2xWith just 100 days to go until the start of Bristol’s Green Capital year the Bristol 2015 Company has revamped its website and introduced a new branding at www.bristol2015.co.uk

For Parks Forum members, the most important section of the new website at the moment is probably on the availability of grants. There are three different grant streams available depending on the size of the projects. The smallest grants for local initiatives and events are being distributed through the Neighbourhood Partnerships which each have an initial £10,000 to allocate to projects in their area. Each Partnership has its own closing dates.

For larger projects grants of up to £10,000 there is The Bristol 2015 Small Grants Fund which is being administered by Quartet. There will be four opportunities to apply for a grant for this fund. The application deadlines are 17th October 2014 and then in 2015 January 5th, April 6th and July 1st.

The third grant stream is for larger strategic grants of £25k – £50k.

There is lots of other information on the website and more will be added as 2015 approaches, including details of the many events that are planned. One of our committee members gets a mention on the website here: www.bristol2015.co.uk/green-and-good.

BGC_LogoBristol Parks Forum along with many other organisations in the City are members of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership which has its own website at www.bristolgreencapital.org. The Partnership has 12 thematic action groups working to make Bristol a greener city and this work will continue after 2015. There are many links between the two organisations and much of what Bristol 2015 does will be driven by the Partnership.

Parks Forum committee member, Fraser Bridgeford, is co-chair of the Nature, Wildlife and Green Spaces Action Group along with Robin Maynard (Avon Wildlife Trust).

Last funding round opens for Big Tree Plant

The sixth and final round of funding for a national campaign that aims to plant one million trees by 2015 has opened and organisations have until 30 August 2013 to apply.

The Big Tree Plant encourages people and communities to plant more trees in England’s towns, cities and neighbourhoods.  Funding is available to any community and voluntary group, or other non-profit organisations that are keen to establish a community-led tree planting project.

Groups working in deprived areas where trees would help to improve residents’ quality of life are strongly encouraged to apply. The advice phone line is 0800 856 7984.

More information is also available at
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/england-bigtreeplant