University Life: How uni grants help fund a variety of good causes

Are you involved in a project that benefits the local community? Or have you been thinking of setting one up?

You might be interested to learn that Oxford University manages a community fund to support Oxfordshire-based community projects.

The community grants scheme was set up in the autumn of 2013 to help fund some of the many excellent activities taking place around the city.

Now we award a series of grants three times a year to a very diverse range of projects within the community. Our latest batch of awardees include runners, a nature reserve, a local history project and lobster dancers.

One of the beneficiaries, the Trap Grounds, is conserving an urban wildlife centre in North Oxford that can be used by local schoolchildren and the wider community.

The Friends of the Trap Grounds are a group of volunteers who say they have limited resources, but can now use the university grant to create another pond and rebuild a dilapidated bird hide.

Their secretary Catherine Robinson described the grant as “invaluable”, adding that the project will benefit schoolchildren and students of ecology, not to mention the kingfishers, water voles, dragonflies and newts that they hope to see multiply on the local wildlife site.

An Oxford University community grant will also support 66 Men of Grandpont, a local history community project to research the 66 men named on the St Matthew’s Church war memorial in Grandpont.

The groups say the money will help them realise their plans to launch an exhibition about the men, assemble a Book of Remembrance, organise a trail around the houses where the men lived and film a short documentary.

The exhibition and trail officially opened on Sunday and runs until July 4, with the film being shown at venues across Oxford in 2016.

A mass participation lobster quadrille, a dance to mark Alice’s Day, coordinated by The Story Museum in Oxford, has received £1,000.

The Lobster Quadrille event will be held for children from local schools as part of the popular annual celebration of the famous story Alice in Wonderland.

Another £1,000 will help set up an Oxford branch of GoodGym, an organisation of volunteers which has been making headlines in London.

It helps to get people fit by sending them on missions to help the community.

Edward Field, partnership manager of GoodGym, says they have already had a great response from local residents with well over 100 runners already signed up to run.

Previous grant winners have included the Osney Lock Hydro scheme, Oxfordshire Play Association, Cowley News, Cowley Road Carnival, Christmas Light Night and the Pegasus Theatre. So you can see the criteria for receiving a community grant is pretty broad.

We are looking for organisations that can explain what their project will deliver for the communities of Oxford, what activities they want to carry out, and a breakdown of expected costs. Applications are considered all year round.

For more information on how to apply, visit ox.ac.uk/local-community/small-community-grants