CEN Circular Economy Call to Action Fund application guidance and FAQs

The Fund is intended for community organisations and community facing organisations delivering activities within the West Midlands Combined Authority area.

Applications are encouraged from:

• Community groups
• Registered charities
• Community Interest Companies
• Social enterprises
• Other incorporated not-for-profit organisations working with local communities

Applicants must demonstrate their ability to deliver projects and manage grant funding responsibly.

Applicants must be a member of the Community Environment Network or sign up to the Network prior to submitting their application.

Projects should support and promote circular economy principles such as repair, reuse, sharing, refurbishment, or waste reduction. Examples include:

Repair activities

• Repair cafes
• Bike repair and maintenance workshops
• Electrical item repair sessions
• Sewing and clothes repair sessions
• Repair skills training workshops

Reuse and sharing activities

• Tool libraries, libraries of things, or other community equipment sharing initiatives
• Reuse hubs or swapping events

Education and awareness activities

• School workshops
• Circular economy awareness campaigns
• Community learning events

Projects may be entirely new initiatives or expansions of existing activities, provided the funding supports additional activity rather than business-as-usual activity.

Successful projects will be expected to:

• Engage local residents in their delivery
• Share learning and knowledge with other organisations through the Community Environment Network and showcase event
• Complete all necessary monitoring and evaluation returns provided by the WMCA, including provision of a project case study

There is a range of activities that this funding cannot support such as:

• Services covered by existing initiatives
• Rent or utilities
• Lobbying or voter registration efforts
• Payments to government officials
• Nonprofit/NGO incorporation fees
• Scholarships
• Direct support to individuals or families, partisan political organisations, political campaigns, fundraisers, or projects
• Capital campaigns, endowments, or endowed chairs

Organisations can apply for up to £5,000.

No, community organisations, CICs and social enterprises are also encouraged to
apply.

Complete the application form provided and send to environment@wmca.org.uk ahead
of the application deadline.

High level feedback on project ideas can be provided by sending a request to
environment@wmca.org.uk.

Yes, funding can support existing projects where it will enable additional activity. Grant
funding cannot be used to replace existing funding for a project or cover business as
usual costs.

The circular economy focuses on keeping materials and products in use for as long as possible through activities such as repair, reuse, sharing and refurbishment.

Applicants can learn more about the circular economy on the WMCA website here, or through taking our free Circular Literacy Course here.

Specific advice for community delivery of the circular economy is available here.

Not necessarily. Applicants should demonstrate the capacity to successfully deliver their project idea, and we would encourage organisations to take a broad approach to delivering the circular economy in a way that is meaningful to them and the people in their communities.

All projects will be provided with a form to submit monitoring and evaluation information.

This will be aligned to the project impacts from the project application form and can include tracking the number of people attending events or number of household items repaired, or qualitative information on the difference that your project has made to the community.

Projects can create legacy through several ways including:

• Equipment that will continue to be available for community reuse through a sharing scheme
• Skills and knowledge retained by project participants, for example, teaching people how to repair household items
• The creation of ongoing partnerships between organisations
• Continued delivery of services or activities using circular business models
• Production of new resources, guidance or systems that will be used beyond the duration of this project