The Community Challenge Fund

In July 2010 Bristol City council identified the need for a small grants programme to help local projects get off the ground and give people the chance to reach new audiences, increase the quality of life in their neighbourhood and cut their carbon emissions.

They launched The Community Challenge Fund and asked The Bristol Green Capital Partnership to manage it.

This is a fund which hands out small awards to innovative projects to help them get going and the process is designed to be as simple as possible, to make it easy for organisations to apply. It is a great starting point for new groups or ideas.

Back in 2007 Alastair Sawday, the then chair of the Green Capital Momentum Group, said: “We all know about the problem – we need to cut carbon. But what are the solutions? So often the best ideas come not from big business or government, but from the grassroots. Nowhere is this more true than Bristol, a city buzzing with brilliant ideas and actions to make us a greener city. We are delighted the council is investing in this fund.”

These pages give you the up to date news about when to apply and also celebrates some of the brilliant projects that have been funded.

Below is the list of all the funded projects. Please click on the project to see news & updates.

• The Bristol Pound
• Resilient Food Plan for Bristol
• The Happy City Project
• Ecojam
• Bristol Green Doors
• Sims Hill Shared Harvest
• Zero Carbon Bristol
• Bristol Energy Network: working together to reduce energy use as a community
• SOFA Office
• Horfield Community Allotment and Forest Garden
• The Walled Garden Project
• Green Lockleaze
• Greater Bedminster Walking Capital of Bristol
• Street Cycle
• Energy Auditing in Schools
• Tyning’s field project
• Feed Bristol Project
• Energy Awareness Stall
• Shift bristol Summer/Autumn Programme
• Let’s Get Growing
• Keen on Green
• Energy Futures
• Fruit Trees for the Future
• Growing Green
• Your Green Future
• Pressing Matters
• Old Skills, New Future Programme
• Somali women project
• Velocity Cycle Logistics
• Extending Growing Capacity Project
• BYEP (Babbasa Youth Empowerment projects)
• Constructing a Woodland Education and Learning Compound at Arnos Vale Cemetery
• Hartcliffe Farm Community Allotment Project
• FairShare South West
• Places for People