Crisis and Resilience Fund: Cost of Living Community Grants programme

The funding is intended to enable residents to access face-to-face cost of living advice from supportive and qualified advisers and organisations in areas of the borough where the council has identified a need. This is intended to complement online and telephone advice services already available through the county council and local voluntary sector advice services.

The funding is also intended to provide practical support to help residents access essential items to prevent them falling into crisis and improve their long-term resilience. This could include access to low cost furniture, white goods, essential household items, clothing and energy efficiency support.

It will also support pilot money management and budgeting courses to help residents build financial resilience.

• The size of the grant will be determined by the number of residents you expect to support and the costs of the support you intend to offer.
• In your application, please do not overestimate the number of residents you expect to support over this period of time.
• Funds must be spent by 31 March 2027 and the grant will be paid in two halves. The first grant payment will be made on receipt of a completed grant agreement, and the second grant payment on receipt of the first monitoring report.

At this stage, Tewkesbury Borough Council cannot confirm if it will receive the Crisis and Resilience Funding for 2027-2029. As a result the funding commitment is short term. Organisations applying to this fund should therefore frame their application as:

• Extending the depth or reach of an existing project during the funding period
• Testing or piloting new approaches or projects
• Provision of seed funding for a new project that could secure future funding supported with evidence generated from this grant.

Applications should not relate the replication of existing provision.

Tewkesbury Borough Council is particularly interested in supporting residents in the following borough wards: Priors Park, Tewkesbury South; Churchdown St Johns; Innsworth; Northway; Brockworth East; Brockworth West; Cleeve West; Cleeve St Michaels and Winchcombe. This is because data available to us shows particular need in these areas for advice service and practical provision. You can see a map of the ward boundaries here.

The council is also interested in any provision that might be able to offer support in more rural areas of the borough, specifically including Tewkesbury North & Twyning, Highnam with Haw Bridge, and Shurdington, these are areas we believe residents are likely to benefit from an increase in advice services and practical support.

Tewkesbury Borough Council has identified that there is currently a lack of support for residents seeking access to low cost furniture, white goods and household essentials; money management and budgeting courses; and face to face advice for residents seeking support with financial resilience advice.

The council is also aware that sometimes residents are not aware of the support available to them because of lack of local publicity related to services, and is looking to support local organisations (such as parish or town councils) that want to support better community coordination and publicity.

This funding is available to registered charities, parish and town councils, constituted community organisations, CICs, voluntary and community organisations, registered charities, community interest companies and other not-for-profit groups working in Gloucestershire. This funding is open to faith based organisations, as long as the project does not involve promoting religious beliefs.

Your organisation must have been operating for at least one year and have audited annual accounts in place for your operation. If you plan to offer advice services, you must have evidence of suitably qualified staff or volunteers for the support that you offer.

Given the priority of the Crisis and Resilience Fund that there should be “no wrong door” for residents in need, eligible organisations should be able to indicate how they are part of a broader ecosystem of support services in the borough, and their partnerships and links with other organisations.

• Supporting running costs of your service to enable you to focus on the development of new partnerships and referral routes. Please describe how supporting the running costs of your organisation would increase your capacity to do this.
• Costs related to building new partnerships or expansion of your service into new areas
• Publicity of your service or local services to ensure accessibility (including to specific groups)
• Developing your organisation’s capacity to work in partnership with others
• Other – your local circumstances may mean that there are other costs you wish to apply for here. Please do get in touch for a conversation with Helen Wolfson, Community Funding Officer, if you have other costs that you wish to apply for.

There is no minimum or maximum grant size for this application fund. Please do not apply for costs that are greater than 4 months of your existing expenditure. It is expected that organisations will apply for realistic costs to offer specific services within the Borough. Applicants should be mindful of the areas that the borough council wishes to target, and the likely take up of their services, and tailor their costs accordingly.

Applicants are encouraged to make contact with the Community Development team at Tewkesbury Borough Council prior to working on an application, to ensure that their plans are aligned with support available in the particular area where they wish to work. In the first instance, please contact Helen Wolfson, Community Funding Officer who will be able to assist.

Applications will be reviewed by a grant assessment panel including representatives of Tewkesbury Borough Council, Gloucestershire County Council and a VCSE representative. The Community Funding Officer will be present to brief and inform the panel but is not involved in decision making.

In their assessment of applications, the panel will be looking at:

• Evidence of meeting due diligence requirements (evidence of appropriately qualified staff or volunteers if advice services are offered, robust safeguarding policies, audited annual accounts, appropriate insurance policies)
• Good understanding of local needs
• Evidence of existing work that is applicable to local residents
• Realistic, detailed and clearly costed plans for delivering support to residents of Tewkesbury Borough
• Plans that meet the Crisis and Resilience Fund aims and priorities
• Plans that show engagement with wider partnerships in the local area.

Please only apply for costs that will deliver provision that you can realistically deliver within the timeframe of the grant allocation.

There is no maximum or minimum that you can apply for, but the panel will be made aware if you are applying for costs that are ambitious in relation to your current budget and circumstances.

You should not apply for costs that you have already covered through alternative restricted funding sources for the same activity or items.

Applications must be accompanied by the required documentation listed at the end of the application form.

To apply for this funding, please return this form by 12 noon on Wednesday, 21 October 2026 to helen.wolfson@tewkesbury.gov.uk .  

• We expect to be able to communicate decisions by Friday, 6 November 2026.
• We expect to supply grant agreements for signature by Friday, 20 November 2026
• On receipt of signed grant agreements from partners, we will release the first quarter funds as quickly as possible
• Our expectation is that delivery by partners will commence from Tuesday, 1 December 2027
• The second grant payments will be made on receipt of the first monitoring information from grantees.

Please contact Helen Wolfson, Community Funding Officer, with any questions – helen.wolfson@tewkesbury.gov.uk

Please download the guidance and application form which is available here and return by email to helen.wolfson@tewkesbury.gov.uk by 12 noon on 21 October 2027.

You will receive an email acknowledgement of your application form.

This is not an exhaustive list, but may give some indicators of the types of project that could be supported through this fund.

Improving Awareness of Local Support

Cost of living support is available in the parish, including a food bank, regular Connect to Work drop-ins and digital inclusion advice. However, residents may not know what help is available. The Parish Council wants to create a leaflet that explains the support on offer and share it with the people most likely to need it.

What could they do? Apply for a CRF grant from Tewkesbury Borough Council to pay for leaflet and poster production and distribution. They could also ask the Borough Council for local data to help decide where to deliver the leaflet, and for details of borough-wide support services.

Household Essentials Bank

A community centre is regularly approached by residents on low incomes who are struggling to afford basic household items such as bedding, small kitchen equipment, and warm clothing. The centre wants to set up a volunteer-led household essentials bank so people can access practical support quickly and with dignity, but it needs funding and staff time to get the service started.

What could they do? Apply for a CRF grant from Tewkesbury Borough Council to cover staff time to set up the service, publicity, storage, DBS checks, volunteer training and some initial stock of essential household items.

Expanding a Community Drop-in Hub

A regular community drop-in hub needs to expand because demand is growing. Staff are having to turn people away from cost of living sessions. The hub needs a larger venue with more private meeting spaces, as well as new publicity to let residents know about the service.

What could they do? Apply for a CRF grant from Tewkesbury Borough Council to pay for extra meeting space, additional advisors and new publicity.

Money Management Courses

Residents are finding it difficult to manage household budgets because of rising living costs, debt, benefit changes and higher energy bills. A local community group wants to run short money management courses to help people feel more confident with budgeting, bills, saving, borrowing and knowing where to get support.

What could they do? Apply for a CRF grant from Tewkesbury Borough Council to pay for venue hire, tutor or adviser costs, course materials, refreshments, publicity and staff time to coordinate the sessions. The group could also work with local advice services to make sure residents are referred for extra help if needed.