Supporting your community projects

Our Communities team, can help build vibrant communities and have done so by helping set up or providing: 

Community Hubs

A Community Hub provides a space where residents can enjoy free refreshments and social activities in a safe and friendly environment, obtain information and advice, and share the company of others. We, along with partners, can work with you to help set one up for the benefit of your community.

Cost of living support

We can help provide cost of living crisis support to residents in need. This can be by providing direct support from the Council, signposting communities to existing support, helping facilitate existing schemes to reach those most in need, and supporting community groups that wish to start projects that support those in need.

Health and Wellbeing

The physical activity coordinator supports communities in South Cambridgeshire to engage in more healthy and active lifestyles. This involves engaging with communities and schools to understand what physical activity events they would like to bring to their community. We can then support by signposting to: 

• grant funding
• planning sessions/projects
• seeking instructors to deliver
• venue hire
• equipment purchases.

Some examples of community-led activity sessions include:

• indoor new-age kurling
• volunteer-led community health walks
• walking sports such as netball, football, cricket, and rugby.

Our FreetoFeed Campaign promotes breastfeeding and pumping outside the home to help normalise and destigmatise breastfeeding in public. We are working with over 90 local cafés, bars, restaurants, and other businesses to help parents feel welcome and relaxed to
feed their infants when out and about. Businesses can contact the council if they want to find out more or get involved.

Community Safety:

We aim to help residents and communities respond to issues of concern in their villages and towns. Some are perpetrated by others within the same and neighbouring communities, so actions taken by residents can have a strong impact.

For example, we can support with setting up a Speedwatch group or investigate options for targeted activities for young people.

Electronic and printable resources are available for Parish and Town Councils or local organisations to use in response to issues such as:

• inconsiderate parking
• hate crime
• modern day slavery
• safeguarding
• exploitation and County Lines
• online safety, and much more.

We can organise and attend community meetings to listen to concerns from residents and provide suggestions for actions and links with relevant Community Safety Partnership partner agencies (this group involves local councils, police, fire service, health, and many others).

We can help address anti-social behaviour in partnership with churches, youth workers, schools, and Parish and Town Councils. We regularly work with police, fire, and other partners to address issues through multi-agency meetings. Reports made to police, this council, and other agencies directly feed in to these discussions and we can provide support and awareness-raising resources to help residents understand options for reporting.

Case study: Exercise4Fun physical activity programme

Exercise4Fun is a FREE 12-week active lifestyle programme, delivered at four leisure centres across the district. It supports people to engage in becoming more active through enjoyable activities and subsequently gaining health benefits. This is funded by Public Health, where there is a desire to support healthy weights. We are involved in the establishment of these sessions by agreeing the programme delivery, choosing the locations, and helping with promotion. Over the course of the year, we have had 106 people take part in the programme, resulting in many physical, mental and social benefits, but most importantly, improvements in weight management.

Our communities team are on hand to support with: 

Community Grants

We offer a wide range of grants to help improve your community, such as:

• Community Chest Grant - funding of up to £2,000 per financial year for a wide range of community projects.
• Mobile and Community Warden Scheme Grant - funding to start up and run a scheme to support older people to live independently in their homes.
• Tenant Community Grant - funding of up to £1,000 for tenants living in South Cambridgeshire District Council homes wanting to improve their local community.
• Long Term Health Conditions Grant – funding of up to £2,000 for physical activity programmes that support people with specific long-term health conditions.
• Service Support Grants – funding for Voluntary and Community Sector organisations who support residents to live and travel independently, and get the support, advice, and advocacy that they need.

We also signpost to other organisations who can provide funding and support.

Responding to communities

We can provide support and advice on how to address a range of different social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues within your community.

This could include:

• Advice on setting up a Community Group.
• Help with recruiting volunteers.
• Support with organising a litter pick.
• Setting up a local food hub or foodbank.
• Support for nominating an Asset of Community Value.
• Guidance on how to run a community survey.
• Supporting the shaping and integration of new Parishes or Towns, and the re-shaping of existing Parish and Town Council boundaries and membership, known as a Community Governance Review. 
• Signposting to sources of information or funding.

We can also support you to create a Community Led Plan. Your Plan could aim to achieve anything from organising regular litter picks, or buying a defibrillator for a community building, through to setting up an environmental group. The important thing to remember is that it is led, driven, and resourced through action taken by people who live in
your community.

Climate and Environment

The Climate and Environment Team runs several grants and schemes, which communities and Parish or Town Councils may find helpful to support their ambitions to reduce their emissions and promote nature recovery in their areas.

• The Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Point Scheme provides grants to community organisations and Parish and Town Councils to install EV charging points.
• The Six Free Trees scheme offers 6 free trees to every Parish and Town Council in the district.
• The Zero Carbon Communities Grant provides up to £15,000 of funding for projects which reduce carbon emissions and/or engage communities on climate change.
• The Action on Energy scheme provides advice, support and funding for installing energy efficiency measures on private housing.

The team are also able to provide ad-hoc support, advice, and signposting on topics such as home energy efficiency, nature recovery and carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions. Please get in touch at climateandenvironment@scambs.gov.uk with any queries you may have, and we will do our best to support you.

Case study - Community Safety Partnership

Along with the Police, we received reports from local businesses, residents, and District and Parish Councillors a about a group of young people who were causing concern in the community. The group were antagonising and acting threateningly to other residents in public places and causing a nuisance to local businesses. 

The Community Safety Partnership:

• Drew together the groups impacted to hear experiences and gather information.
• Ensured that police had access to relevant recordings from business CCTV.
• Ensured that the level of community concern was considered alongside the evidence of individual incidents.

Police formalised agreements of acceptable behaviour with the  young people and their parents. Key community members were involved to explain to the young people how their behaviour had impacted the community. Through this work, the parish council  and local youth workers, with funding from Cambridgeshire City Council, have been able to identify young people in need of extra input, and been supported by the Community Safety Partnership with Serious Violence Duty funding to offer small group work and activities to build on positive relationships in the young people’s lives.

As part of our team that supports communities, we have a group of officers who focus on growth sites where significant development is taking place. The Communities Growth Team can help local people to secure community infrastructure as new housing developments are planned, and advises on the community infrastructure requirements at major sites.

The team ensure meaningful engagement is included in the planning process and work with local community partners to establish governance arrangements for community assets.

Our Growth Team help communities secure funding for community development support through ‘section 106’ agreements, and then provide this development support ourselves or use the funds received to bring in an external provider.

The team also organise Community Forums serving each development to keep residents informed of proposals and progress, and address concerns related to delivery. Through this approach, residents can not only keep themselves informed, but also have the opportunity to challenge developers as new communities emerge, from first plans, through building phases, to occupation and establishment of distinctive new communities.

Where required, the growth team works with existing and emerging communities to conduct community governance reviews. This allows any adjustments which may be needed as a result of new housing growth, which has in the past resulted in the creation of new parishes
and the redrawing of boundaries of existing parishes to take into account new settlement patterns.

Case study: Zero Carbon Communities Grant

The Zero Carbon Community grant has enabled Cambridge Carbon Footprint (CCF) to support the set-up of new repair cafés in South Cambridgeshire, train volunteers in how to run repair cafés, and provide them with support and resources to thrive. This includes a new toolkit supported by local businesses, a ‘Fixometer’ tool to demonstrate avoided carbon emissions to residents, and a repairer recruitment campaign.

Key to the Network’s success has been CCF’s adoption of a ‘hub and spoke’ model to build capacity, where information and resources are provided to repair cafés from CCF’s centralised hub, making the most of their core group of volunteers and staff.

Support provided for the repair cafés in the network includes:

• access to a network of experienced repairers who are willing to travel to and mentor new repair café
• an extensive communal toolkit
• publicity materials and an event listing site
• admin and booking systems.
• advice on health and safety.
• a discounted insurance policy that is fit for purpose.

Case study - Community Led Plan

In Heydon, the Parish Council recently undertook a Community Led Plan to incorporate the views of the local community. We helped with signposting to sources of information or funding
including the Council’s Community Chest Grant Fund, as well as providing advice throughout the Community-Led Plan process by phone and email as well as the chance to attend Community Support workshops.

A working group consisting of two parish councillors and five parishioners was set up, drop in discussion sessions were held, and other communication methods were employed such as questionnaires and social media to allow residents to express their opinions on what
makes their village unique.

Feedback has been hugely successful, and this allowed them to formulate, and commit to, an action plan for the future. The completed Plan can be viewed on the Heydon Parish Council
website.