Your Pots grants – everyone gets the chance to help choose

Are you involved with a community organisation with an idea for a project that could help create a regenerative economy in the Lancaster district – one where local enterprises, organisations and people live and work in a way that protects and restores the environment, builds healthier communities and improves people’s wellbeing?

A Your Pots grant from the Pots of Possibility Fund could provide up to £10,000 awarded with the help of a public voting process.

Pots of Possibility, offered by Lancaster District CVS and FoodFutures with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, provides grants to help community organisations start projects which actively repair and revive our natural world and society, rather than just maintaining them as they are.

The second round of the Your Pots strand will support community initiatives that help with:

• reusing, repurposing and repairing materials currently going to waste (e.g. textiles, electronics, packaging, surplus food, etc)
• sharing resources (e.g. tools, materials, skills, etc) or repurposing unused space for community benefit 
• inspiring people to use and buy things more sustainably and to produce less waste
• growing, cooking and eating food that’s local, seasonal and sustainably produced

Application forms are open now at morecambebay.grantplatform.com and close at midnight on 30 September.

All projects which meet the fund’s eligibility criteria will go through to a public voting day being held in November, which anyone can attend to find out more about the proposals and vote on who they think should receive support.

There won’t just be one winner, and it’s not about ‘winner takes all’. It’s about local communities deciding how best to spend scarce resources and about helping local projects to reach their full potential.

As the umbrella organisation representing community groups in our area, Lancaster District CVS believes that the most effective innovations come from the grassroots rather than from the top down.

So we’re really excited to be able to offer this grant programme thanks to the generosity of National Lottery players, and to work alongside all the successful projects as we collaborate to reconnect people, place, community and nature. 

To find out more about Your Pots, and how to get support with making an application, visit lancastercvs.org.uk/pots – and to read about projects that have already received support, have a look at foodfutures.org.uk/pop-funded-projects