Our Resettlement Community Grant funds projects and activities that support refugees and people with experience of seeking asylum.
There are two tiers of grant – up to £5,000 (Tier 1), and £5,001 to £30,000 (Tier 2).
- Tier 1 grants are suitable for shorter projects and one-off events.
- Tier 2 grants are available for long-term projects – bids are expected to cover a period lasting between six and 24 months.
We cannot accept applications for this grant from individuals. You must form a partnership with an eligible organisation to apply for funding. If you have an idea but are not yet a part of a group or partnership, contact us to discuss how you can proceed.
Grant priorities
Your project must meet one or more of the five grant priorities to be considered for a grant award.
- Welcoming and resettlement – support and advice for people who have recently arrived in Cambridge
- Integration and community cohesion – initiatives that help to:
- promote an understanding of different customs and cultures
- build relationships and ‘bridge the divide’ between different groups
- celebrate diversity, increasing a sense of belonging
- Skills development – provide learning and training opportunities for personal and professional life, such as:
- English language classes
- access to volunteering, employment and entrepreneurship, to pursue career paths and professions that were disrupted by displacement
- Access to specialist and targeted support – initiatives that respond to existing gaps in services and reduce barriers for particular groups, such as:
- women-only activities
- poverty relief for asylum seekers
- support for people who have experienced trauma
- Wellbeing – activities that support wellbeing, such as:
- arts and cultural projects
- community crafts, cooking and food, gardening and connecting with nature
- sports and other opportunities to experience joy
The funded activities should benefit refugees and people with experience of seeking asylum who live in Cambridge. They can also benefit people who have a connection to the city council, such as receiving support from our resettlement team.
Projects that will meet the ‘integration and community cohesion’ priority can include other city residents as direct beneficiaries. These residents should not form the majority of the participants in any funded activity.
Tier 1 Resettlement Community Grants
Tier 1 grants are suitable for shorter projects and one-off events. Up to £5,000 is available per project.
You can use the grant to fund the direct costs of running the project. We will consider allowing you to use it to cover a realistic and proportionate share of your organisation’s overheads.
You can only hold one Tier 1 grant at a time. You cannot apply for another Tier 1 grant until we have approved the monitoring report for your project.
Eligibility
You can apply for a grant of up £5,000 or less on behalf of:
- a community group, small group of residents, faith group or constituted not-for-profit organisations
- a constituted not-for-profit organisation such as:
- a registered charity
- a company limited by guarantee
- an unincorporated association or club
- a community interest company
- a charitable incorporated organisation
- a partnership of local residents with an eligible group including refugees and asylum seekers based in Cambridge and surrounding areas. The eligible group must be the lead applicant
Your group must:
- have a governing document defining your group’s aims and procedures
- have at least three unrelated, elected volunteers who decide policy and overall management. These must not be family members, married couples or civil partners, or people living at the same address
- meet the legal responsibilities of an employer and adopt, implement, and monitor good employment practices and procedures, if relevant
- recruit and support volunteers appropriately
- comply with all statutory and legal responsibilities applicable to the organisation and its regulatory body
- keep proper financial records
- have a dual-controlled group bank account
- adopt appropriate health and safety policies and practices before any funding will be awarded, including:
- risk assessments for activities
- safeguarding measures for children and vulnerable adults, if appropriate to the activity
- data protection, environmental, and equality and diversity
If any of these are not in place, you must demonstrate that you are working to set them up.
Apply
You can apply for this grant on our grants portal from 13 October. Applications will remain open year-round until the fund is exhausted.
We will decide whether to award your grant within six weeks of receiving your application.
Tier 2 Resettlement Community Grants
The Tier 2 grant is available for long-term projects – bids are expected to cover a period lasting between six and 24 months. Grants of £5,001 to £30,000 are available.
Eligibility
You can apply for a grant of £5,001 to £30,000 on behalf of:
- an established group with a good track record of working with refugees and asylum seekers
- a group with a connection to the refugees or asylum seekers living in the local area. Groups without a connection must submit an outreach plan with their application to be eligible
- a constituted not-for-profit organisation such as:
- a registered charity
- a company limited by guarantee
- an unincorporated association or club
- a community interest company
- a charitable incorporated organisation
The Tier 2 grant has a match-funding requirement – at least 5% of the project costs must be covered by another source. This can include participant contributions or other grants and donations but excludes in-kind contributions and organisational reserves.
Apply
You can apply for this grant on our grants portal between 23 July and 10am on 17 September 2025. We cannot accept late applications.
You must upload copies of all relevant documents with your application, so we can review them as part of the assessment process. You will need:
- a bank statement from the bank account you want the grant to be paid into, dated within the last three months
- your latest set of accounts
- an organisational budget or up-to-date management accounts
- governing documents
- insurance certificates
- risk assessment for your projects
- policies for:
- complaints
- data protection
- environmental impact
- equality and diversity
- health and safety
- safeguarding
Next steps
We will decide whether to accept your grant request within 10 weeks of the closing date.
When assessing your application, we might request additional information or invite you to discuss certain aspects of your project. It is essential that you respond to those requests promptly.
If your application is successful, you will receive a grant agreement. You must meet any conditions listed in the agreement before the grant will be released to you.
Application support
We will be holding webinars about our grant funds and our new grants portal in the summer and autumn. We will share the recordings here after the event.
- Thursday 7 August
- Date in the autumn to be confirmed
We will also hold face-to-face sessions where we can help you submit your application. Contact us to make an appointment.
- Tier 2 grant support: 20 August and 3 September, 10am to 4pm at the Cambridge Council for Voluntary Services office
- Tier 1 grant support: dates in October and November to be confirmed
