What is the aim of Communities Against Cancer?

The project is about raising awareness of cancer, helping improve early diagnosis and encouraging people to attend cancer screening. Closely working with Wessex Cancer Alliance, who are funding CAC. It is not designed to support people already affected by cancer. You do not need to know anything about cancer as Action Hampshire will provide ongoing support and you can access our free cancer awareness workshops.

What size of grants are available?

This programme is offering grants of between £500 and £2,500.

Why do we want to give these grants?

In parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset there are significant health inequalities. Some communities experience far worse health than other communities.

We are trying to reduce these inequalities by making sure that everyone understands how to spot the signs and symptoms of cancer and how to make their cancer risk as low as possible.

The grants are aimed at supporting people who are less likely to know how to look after their health or are less able to do so.

Who do we want to give grants to?

Communities Against Cancer grants are open to charities, community groups and social enterprises working in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset supporting people in the following groups:

People with learning disabilities
People on low incomes
People experiencing mental health challenges.
People from minority ethnic groups who may face health inequity including Black and Asian communities and Gypsy, Romany, and Traveller communities.
Deprived communities

If you feel that people in your community have poorer health (in relation to cancer) and would benefit from learning how to improve it, then we would love to hear from you.

By ‘community’ we mean people living in a certain area or people who have something in common, like a health condition or a life situation or their age.

Where should you be working?

We can award grants for work happening anywhere in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight or Dorset. The key point is that your work needs to be focused on people with worse than average cancer-related health outcomes.

The grant application form has a question asking you to explain why your work is needed, so you will be able to say how the people you work with fit one or more of our priority areas / groups.

How much money can you apply for?

Between £500 and £2,500.

If your project has a particular impact, it may be possible to award a little more than £2,500, but please contact the Communities Against Cancer team at cac@actionhampshire.org to discuss this before submitting your application.

Length of grant?

The start date needs to be at least a month after the application deadline (the last working day of each month). This will allow time for us to consider all the applications and confirm which ones have been successful.

We intend to accept applications up to the end of January 2025 but reserve the right to close the grants programme early if all our funding has been allocated. All grants awarded must be fully spent by the end of 31 March 2025.

Who can apply?

If you can answer ‘yes’ to the questions below, we would love to hear from you.

Does your idea benefit people who are less likely to have knowledge about the signs, symptoms, and prevention of cancer, or who are less likely to access NHS cancer screening?

Are you a charity, community group or social enterprise working in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight or Dorset?

What can you spend the grant on?

We want to help you increase your group or community’s awareness and knowledge about cancer.

We will cover all (or part) of the costs of activities that can help you to achieve this goal.

You do not have to achieve this goal immediately. We know that change takes a long time. But we need to know how you plan to work towards the goal.

So, you need to be clear about the activities you plan to deliver, the beneficiaries taking part and what the outcomes are you want to achieve.

Example of activities could include –

Creating resources/materials with members of a community about a particular element of cancer awareness (e.g. cancer screening)
Creating a workshop/event where people can learn about cancer awareness in an engaging way.
Healthy cooking workshop or fun physical activity to support people to learn how to reduce risk of cancer.

Do you have to know a lot about cancer?

No! You do not have to know anything about cancer to apply for a grant. You can join our Cancer Awareness workshops to learn more about cancer screening, signs, and symptoms and how to reduce risk of cancer. Then you will be able to share this knowledge with your community.

These mostly take place online through Zoom but if this is difficult for you, please let us know. We can also offer ongoing support to help you with your project.

We want to give grants to people with great ideas to help and inform their community, not just to people who already know a lot about cancer.

How should you apply?

Please complete the application form on our website, which is available by following this link https://forms.gle/ittUsKnTYRFtERyY7. So that you have all the information to hand before you start to complete the form, there is a list of questions you will be asked to complete.

If you have any problems accessing the form or need assistance to complete the form, please get in touch cac@actionhampshire.org. We will book a call in with you to go through the form together. Alternatively, you can film yourself answering the questions on the application form.

We do not mind how you apply, but we are unable to award a grant without the answers to the questions on the form.

If you have any questions, please contact Kishor, Community Projects Officer kishor.patel@actionhampshire.org or 01962 857354.

How to make a good application General tips

Read these guidance notes and contact us if you have any queries.
Be clear and to the point, please avoid using jargon as much as possible.
Get someone else to read your application – a fresh pair of eyes can be helpful.

Description of your organisation

Tell us about what your organisation does – don’t assume we know what you do!

The need among your beneficiaries

Explain the needs and issues facing your beneficiaries in relation to health and cancer – do some research to understand what issues they face in relation to cancer risk, diagnosis, and cancer screening uptake.

What your project idea is (want you want do with the grant)

Explain what you want to do, be as clear and detailed as you can.
Please include approximate timescales for the things you want to do.
We need an estimate of how many people will directly benefit from your project (but we know this may be difficult if this is a new project, but please estimate the impact)

The impact of your proposal

Your project needs to clearly align with the Communities Against Cancer three key aims:

To raise awareness of cancer,
To help improve early diagnosis.
Encouraging people to attend cancer screening.
Explain clearly how you are going to measure your impact and the outcomes for which you are hoping.

Your history of working with your beneficiaries

Tell us what experience you have working with people in our target groups.
Explain how you will involve them in your project and ensure that they engage and understand the messages you share with them.

Costs breakdown

Give us as much detail as you can on how you are planning to spend the grant.

If we award you a grant, how will we monitor it?

We will ask you for a report showing what you have done, how you have spent the grant money, and what difference you have made. Based on what you plan to do, we will agree with you the dates when reports are required. We may also ask for receipts or similar evidence of expenditure.

We will ask questions such as:

What has gone well / what has helped / what difference has it made (you can use case studies, photos, videos, written accounts as examples)
What has not worked so well? Please be honest – all your feedback will be valuable!
What have been the barriers or difficulties?
What would you do differently next time?
Other information to help achieve the programme’s aims.

We will also need a final report once you have spent all the grant money. Staff time being claimed as expenditure will need to be reflected in the activities carried out.

What else will you need to do if you receive a grant?

You, or someone involved with your idea will need to attend one of our Cancer Awareness workshops, usually before your funded activities begin. This will mean that you can provide high quality and accurate information about cancer awareness. These sessions are being run online using Zoom. Please let us know if this might be a problem for you.
We would like to visit some of the activities that we have funded. You must agree to us attending one or more of your activities if we ask unless there is a genuine reason this would cause a problem.
You will keep evidence (e.g., receipts) of how you have spent the grant, ready for us to check if we ask.

What happens if your plans need to change?

We appreciate that your plans and costs might change. If you are experiencing problems with your project, please talk to us – we are very flexible and can help you with these things!

These problems might be:

Your project has hit a problem or what you planned to do is not working.
You cannot spend all the money.
Things are more expensive than you budgeted for

Data protection and Privacy

We will add basic details about your organisation (including your contact details) to our database. This is necessary for us to manage your grant application and follow-up contact.
We will share these details with Wessex Cancer Alliance (the funding body) and its constituent organisations.
If you are awarded a grant, we would like to publicise details of the activities that you will be doing. We will discuss this with you later but please contact us with any queries or concerns.

What next?

If you would like to talk to someone about your idea before applying form, please contact Kishor

– kishor.patel@actionhampshire.org or by calling 01962 857354.