Case studies
Winchester City Council recognises the important role that community and voluntary organisations have in delivering key services to the people and communities of the Winchester district. The council’s community grant funding programme is aimed at supporting voluntary and notfor-profit groups and organisations in the District to deliver services and activities that closely align with council priorities.
On this page
— Friends of St Giles Hill Graveyard
— Broadlands Riding for the Disabled
— Village hall solar panels
— Citizens Advice Winchester District
— Cost of Living Grant
MHA Communities - Warm Spaces project
Winchester Young Carers - transport support
Winchester Street Reach
— Winchester Boxing Club
Friends of St Giles Hill Graveyard
Received a small grant which enabled volunteers to clear an area of the graveyard, create gabion seating and plant specialised chalk grassland meadow mix.
“The grant from WCC has helped us create valuable sitting areas for the user of St Giles Hill Graveyard and is particularly helpful to those with limited mobility. Also, some areas of the site that were previously difficult to maintain are more accessible.”
Broadlands Riding for the Disabled
Broadlands is one of the longest established Riding for the Disabled groups in the UK. Since 1955 they have been helping participants enjoy the incredible benefits that spending time with ponies brings.
“In enabling the replacement of our old, inefficient and dangerous electrical lighting with a more efficient, brighter and more environmentally acceptable LED solution, the grant from Winchester City Council has provided better working conditions, and lower utility costs, for our charity. This is of direct benefit to our disabled riders and carriage drivers.”
Village hall solar panels
Winchester City Council has awarded funding for the installation of solar panels on a village hall’s roof. The Itchen Abbas and Avington Village Hall applied for the funding for solar panels as part of its sustainability efforts and to reduce energy bills. The charity, managed by volunteers, raised more than £10,000 from both Crowdfunder and a grant of £4,000 from Winchester City Council.
Christopher Langford, Chair of Itchen Abbas and Avington Village Hall, said:
"The Winchester City Council Greener Futures Fund operated through Crowdfunder has supported us to raise the money to put solar panels on the roof of our village hall this will help with future hire charges to benefit the local community."
Citizens Advice Winchester District
Citizens Advice Winchester District is an independent local charity that provide advice for anyone in the district facing challenge in their lives. They provide free, confidential advice to everyone on a range of issues including money, housing, relationships and employment. The charity’s core operational costs are supported by a Strategic Fund grant from the council, helping them to deliver support to over 5,000 people a year.
"We’re enormously grateful to receive a Strategic Fund grant from WCC. This funding is crucial to the survival of our core advice service in Winchester District, and gives us the stability we need to seek additional funding to expand and develop the range of services that we can provide."
Cost of Living Grant
Our Cost of Living Grant Scheme is all about funding projects in the Winchester District that support our residents with challenges that have been brought about or made worse by the rising costs of living.
There are some fantastic organisations out there that are well-placed to provide support - whether that's helping people with finances, improving awareness around saving energy, boosting social inclusion or promoting access to IT or transport.
MHA Communities - Warm Spaces project
MHA communities Winchester is one of the organisations to have recently received money through our cost-of-living grant scheme. The charity provides support and group activities to older people throughout the district, and has made use of the funds to launch a Warm Spaces project that can be accessed by anyone over the age of 60.
Speaking about their cost of living work, Anna from MHA Communities said:
"We launched our ‘Warm Spaces’ project on 11th January, since then we have held two sessions a week every Wednesday and Friday afternoon. At MHA Communities Winchester we work to support older people living in the local community to help maintain their independence and we have been hearing from many of those we support about their growing concerns around the cost of living crisis, particularly in regard to heating bills. We were aware of other organisations nationally setting up Warm Hubs and we felt this was something that we could look to offer as well. As we operate from a very central and accessible location in Winchester, we felt we had the right infrastructure in place to easily incorporate the ‘Warm Space’s project into our offering of services.
"We heard about the grant fund after attending the Winchester City Council Cost of Living Summit in November. We had already had thoughts about running a ‘Warm Spaces’ project but had yet to identify a suitable funding opportunity to make it a viable proposal so it launched at exactly the right time for us.
"The ‘Warm Space’ sessions are available free of charge for any person over the age of 60, regardless of whether they are members of MHA Communities Winchester. We offer a space which is not only warm and welcoming but also an opportunity to socialise and relax with a hot drink and light snacks. Attendees have access to games, reading materials and WiFi, as well as support with IT if needed.
"We are also providing access to information and signposting regarding benefits, other local services and support options, and we have invited other local organisations to come along and meet with people as part of the project. Transport can be provided for those who are unable to reach us via public transport due to cost, geography or accessibility needs.
"Applying for the grant was very straightforward, the application form itself was very short and the grants team were keen to work with us to ensure our project submission met the grant criteria. We received confirmation of the success of our application within a short time frame which meant we were quickly able to get the project up and running.
Find out more about MHA Communities.
Winchester Young Carers - transport support
Winchester Young Carers is a charity working with young carers aged 8 - 17 in the Winchester district, providing them and their families with wide-ranging support, whether it's to do with education and skills, wellness, social inclusion, or time to have fun. Rising living costs led to concern that the charity's volunteers wouldn't be able to continue the great work they do due to petrol expenses - that's where the Cost of Living Grant came in.
Speaking about the project, Lisa from Winchester Young Carers said:
"I attended the COL conference that Winchester City Council (WCC) had set up. It was a great chance to be updated and hear about the huge challenges that families are facing. I didn’t quite see how it fitted for young carers initially, but it dawned on me that with some young carers dropping out, and more requests for help with transport to get to our activities over recent months, this was something affecting our young carers' families, too. The Citizens Advice Bureau talked about the cost of living really affecting families with long-term disabilities- it occurred to me that families of young carers might be really struggling financially, but may not feel able to share this."
"With the grant funding, we are ensuring that our existing volunteers can claim petrol expenses when they need to, as we don’t want to lose any of our existing volunteers due to the cost of living increases. We also intend to recruit additional volunteer drivers for the Winchester District area and offer reimbursement of petrol when needed for our term time and holiday activities that they take young carers to."
"This grant gives us confidence that we can continue to ensure young carers are able to attend our activities when they are referred to us, through enabling us to continue to support and expand our team of volunteers- thank you WCC- we are so grateful!."
"The form was easy to fill out and dealt with quickly and efficiently. I did get a couple of questions in relation to my application, but as soon as I clarified a couple of things in my application, it was processed straight away. WCC staff were really helpful in answering my own questions too."
Winchester Street Reach
Winchester Street Reach is a charity that supports young people in Winchester and the surrounding areas through activities such as weekly outreach sessions, youth club nights, drop-in projects and trips. Winchester Street Reach is open to all young people, although the charity does focus its work on those experiencing disadvantage. With the help of the Cost of Living Grant, the charity was able to support a new warm space as Unit 12 in Winchester.
Speaking about their work, Stella from Winchester Street Reach said:
"We have delivered a youth club in Micheldever since 2012 - this has provided a warm and safe place for young people to go to on Monday nights. We have also delivered numerous targeted, centre-based workshops over the years since we started as a youth charity in 1983."
"For the specific warm place grant due to the Cost of Living crisis, we have recently moved to Unit 12 in October of 2022 and this prompted us to use the space to provide a warm place for the vulnerable young people that we work with and to reach out to more young people in the local community."
"I attended the Cost of Living forum at the end of last year which was very useful, both in terms of making contacts with WCC and partner organisations and also to hear about the specific Cost of Living Grant. It seemed to match our aims and objectives as a youth charity and we met all the criteria to apply."
"The grant has gone towards delivering a warm place, safe place project at Unit 12 for young people from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. They are able to seek support from our youth worker team with any issues or problems, take part in activities and have help with homework if they wish. During the session, we have a hot, nutritious meal provided by Munch who are also based at Unit 12, which the young people can sit down to eat with the team. As well as providing a warm place to go to after school, the attendees can also have a lift to our football project in Harestock afterwards and back home in our minibus."
"The participants benefit from access to our youth worker team in a warm place after school with a nutritious hot meal provided and a lift to and from our Friday football project in our minibus if they so wish. Some of the young people will be known to our team through attending our other projects or engaging with the team when out on detached youth work in their local community. However we are also hoping to reach out to new young people from the local community so that we can offer more support with the grant funding."
Winchester Boxing Club
Winchester Boxing club opened its doors seven years ago. Starting out in a small hut offering a couple of sessions a week, the club is now home to over 300 members with boxing sessions happening seven days a week.
- Raised £4,057 from 51 Crowdfunder supporters
- £2,000 extra funding from Winchester Communities Positive Change Fund
Fillip, the club's head coach, has opened the doors wide to Winchester's community with a special emphasis on inclusivity. He's done a great deal to promote boxing in the area and the varied demographic of their 300 members is testament to his hard work to get members of all ages and genders into this club.
The club prides itself on being a safe place to learn, practice and socialise. To ensure the safety of all who wish to use it, in June 2020 Winchester Boxing Club successfully crowdfunded over £4,000 to install a defibrillator and upgrade their equipment. With the equipment now purchased and installed, the club is ready but with the impact of the coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns, gyms like this have had to adapt.
"As per the guidance issued by England Boxing, we had to stop all sparring, pad work and competitions. This left us in a situation like teaching swimming without being able to get into the water."
Despite crowdfunding during the first national lockdown Fillip was glad to find the support he needed through their online community:
"The response was really good. We managed to hit our target quite well in advance of our final few days of crowdfunding. We got a lot of support from people in Winchester, namely the adults who train with us and the parents of the children who attend our sessions".
During a time that was fraught with worry and uncertainty, it was a challenge to capture the public's attention which was very much distracted.
"Direct communication proved to be the most effective way in which to reach people and much more efficient in gaining a response. There's a lot of information on social media, you have to be direct."
According to Fillip, after the first lockdown, they were left with only 10% of their members. They are confident they will bounce back but it will be a long journey. Due to this shortfall in finances, they would have never had the money to buy this equipment upon reopening. He said, "We will therefore be much more prepared to receive everyone after having done this crowdfunding campaign, £2,000 of which we received in extra funding from Winchester City Council.
After using the spring and summer months to continue as much of their training as possible outside, they look forward to welcoming people back into their gym. As Fillip says:
"People tend to think that boxing training is mainly just punching each other in the face - but they are 95% wrong! Each session gives you a full body workout including skipping, technical work, bag work and some fitness circuit work, to wear out the bit of energy you'll have left"."
Boxing has gained huge popularity in recent years and Winchester Boxing Club has managed to promote both its physical, mental and social benefits.
"The gym is somewhere to feel welcome, to get fit and make friends" and it was therefore well placed to benefit from the Winchester Communities Positive Change Fund, a council directive aimed at supporting those tackling isolation, low income, homelessness, mental health and physical inactivity."