Trailblazer Community Grants
What is Trailblazer Community Grants?
Trailblazer Community Grants is a grants programme funded through York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s (YNYCA) Trailblazer initiative. The scheme is designed to strengthen opportunities around work, health, and skills within local communities, while also supporting the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) national ‘Get Britain Working’ policy.
Through the programme, we will be awarding grants of £10,000–£25,000 to York and North Yorkshire based VCSE organisations, parish councils, and town councils. These projects will support economically inactive adults to develop confidence, interpersonal and employability skills, supporting them to move closer to the labour market.
Trailblazer Community Grants exclusively offers enhanced support to economically inactive people, with a specific focus on engaging with the following cohorts;
- 16 – 24 year olds including those at risk of becoming inactive/NEET
- 50 – 64 year olds
- Individuals experiencing long term sickness
- Rural and coastal inactive communities
The programme will run from 1st September 2025 – 31st March 2026.
What Can We Fund?
Due to the diversity of York and North Yorkshire, this is a great opportunity to pilot and fund innovative projects and develop provision that enhances and supports the improvement of work, health and/or skills in our communities.
We welcome applications that are exciting, try new approaches for engagement and exclusively offers enhanced support to key cohorts of economically people.
Trailblazer Community Grants project themes include but are not limited to:
- First contact engagement including confidence building, motivation, job search skills and reducing social isolation
- Guided work experience including volunteering
- Training, advice, or counselling
- Specific skills development that could include numeracy, literacy, digital, and life skills.
- Art, Design, and Creative Workshops
- Gardening and environmental studies
- Activities that encourage first steps to engagement in wider community provision and services. This includes further education, employability programmes, engagement with the job centre and community health services.
Eligibility & Application
Organisations are eligible for this opportunity if:
- Your organisation is part of the Voluntary Community Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector or is a Parish or Town Council.
- Your organisation has an independent bank account (a bank account in the name of the organisation) for grant funding to be paid into.
- You have Employers Liability, Public Liability and Professional Indemnity Insurance in place or a commitment to having it in place if successful (please note that copies of insurance certificates will need to be made available on request).
- Your organisation is based in York or North Yorkshire OR is delivering services to residents of York and/or North Yorkshire.
- Your organisation exists to support your local community and improve the lives of those that lives within them.
- Your organisation has a constitution or governing document.
- Your Community Grant project must be different and separate to any other provision you are delivering, including any provision you are already delivering on any Better Connect led programmes. Community Grants can not be used as match funding or to double fund existing provision.
How to Apply:
The Trailblazer Community Grants fund will be open for applications from 26th August until 29th September 2025. Applications received ahead of the deadline may be scored and awarded ahead of the deadline of 29th September but this is not guaranteed.
Please carefully read the guidance document ahead of application submission.
You will need to upload the below budget and outcomes spreadsheet with your application submission.
Community Grants Guidance
Community Grants Application form
Budget and Outcomes Spreadsheet
We held an information event to launch the programme, this contains further information and a helpful Q&A session with potential grant applicants – Watch here
Scroll down to see some of the questions we have already been asked.
If you have any questions please contact Head of Business Development, Emma Lyons (elyons@betterconnect.org.uk), or Head of Impact, Hannah Prole, (hprole@betterconnect.org.uk).
Please note: Better Connect cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or completeness of any submissions.
Applications received after this deadline will not be accepted.
Applications that are missing key information may not be accepted.
Please ensure your submission is sent prior to the deadline and is fully complete.
Content that exceeds word limits will not be taken into consideration.
Applications received ahead of the deadline may be scored and awarded before Monday 29th September 2025 – however this is not guaranteed.
FAQs
Do organisations need to be registered on Better Connects Approved Delivery partner list to apply? No, we welcome applications for any organisation who meet the eligibility criteria.
Is it too late to join the Better Connect Approved Delivery partner list? No, this is a live list, and organisations can join at any time. If you are interested in joining, please follow this link https://forms.office.com/e/wZ7dnRYmz5
Do participants need to be either aged 16 – 24 or 50 – 64 to be eligible for community grants? No, as long as participants meet one of the Trailblazer key cohort categories they are welcome to engage with Trailblazer Community Grants provision. These categories are;
- 16 – 24 year olds including those at risk of becoming inactive/NEET
- 50 – 64 year olds
- Individuals experiencing long term sickness
- Rural and coastal inactive communities
What definition of long-term sick is being used for the purpose of this funding? The DWP are using the ONS definition which relates to health conditions or illnesses lasting or expecting to last 12 months or more. To my knowledge there is no expectation to provide proof of this.
Is there a save function on the application form or is there an expectation to complete everything in one sitting? This has now been added
Can we cross refer people already on Rise2Thrive and/or Trailblazer that would benefit from Community Grants? Yes, as long as the support received is different and the CG support offered is not available on the other programmes – i.e. it is unique to CG trailblazer provision.
Can other Better Connect Programmes count as a progression route? STEP UP could be a progression from Trailblazer CG and R2T could be a progression route from STEP UP. The Combined Authority are keen for us to evidence how different provision is connected, it’s certainly been our intention to design programmes that create natural progression routes from one to the other.
Could the new Trailblazer Community Grant offer be a progression outcome for Rise to Thrive 2 participants? No, Community Grants would not be considered a progression from Rise2Thrive/Trailblazer. Community Grants is a first steps programme designed to improve the interpersonal skills that contribute to good employability, the natural progression route would be Community Grants to R2TT, not the other way around.
However if you had a participant who completed R2T and needed more support they wouldn’t necessarily be ineligible from CG, I could see someone who has maybe gone through R2TT, not got a job and maybe has some new or old barriers come back to the fore, they’ve taken a step back or maybe need some further confidence building before searching for work, they could then join a CG project. We would also expect delivery to be different from that received/being delivered through R2TT though.
Can people on Trailblazer Community Grants access any other partner provision or is or is it like the other Trailblazer and standalone within the delivery organisation? Community Grants is a standalone project so access to intervention through R2TT wouldn’t be possible.
Can partnership applications be submitted? No, this funding is specifically for individual organisations.
Can an umbrella organisation apply for funding on behalf of others? No, individual organisations must apply for funding on their own behalf
Can we apply for Trailblazer Community Grants if we don’t meet the preferred eligibility criteria? Yes, but please do speak to a member of the Better Connect team before you begin your application, so we can ensure that this funding is a suitable route for you.
Is there any flexibility in the amount of funding we can apply for? All grant requests must be between £10,000 and £25,000, with no exceptions
Is there a minimum number of guided learning hours per participant? No, but please do include information about GLH within your application as we are keen to know what you are intending to deliver.
Can appropriate Full Cost Recovery be included within the grant? It’s an actual cost finance model so any eligible costs can be claimed via the claim process. We think there is going to be a 15% contribution to overheads that are not directly claimed. This will all be outlined in the guidance/training sessions.
Is there any scope on the age? Would we be able to accept 14yr olds at risk? Unfortunately not, the minimum age requirement for all Trailblazer Community Grants projects is 16.
Are CIC’s eligible to apply? Yes they are, as long as all eligibility criteria for the funding is met
