Watch our workshop where the Esmée Team share more information about the impact goals and priorities in Creative, Confident Communities. You can also see the accompanying slides and answers to questions we weren't able to cover during the session.
UPDATES TO OUR STRATEGY: Please note that we updated our strategy for Creative, Confident Communities in November 2021, and our strategy for A Fairer Future in July 2022. Watch our Q&A webinars about our strategy for A Fairer Future in October 2022.
More Q&A
Below, you can find Q&As we didn't manage to get to during our webinar. Do also see our FAQs.
Are you interested in organisations that are aiming to make systems change across the UK in order to make the space and garner the support across professional sectors to achieve the goal of Creative, Confident Communities?
We’re open to proposals, especially collaborations and networks, where the beneficial outcomes of the work are significant and sustained and where it contributes to one or more impact goals in our plan.
What would happen to a bid if partners don’t survive the pandemic? Can we add new partners at a later date?
Yes - providing the aims of the work and the potential impact was not affected by the change we are happy for new partners to be added.
Do you have any issues in a bid from a VCS consortium?
The main features of a successful application from a consortium is that the collaborations involved are genuine and not contrived, that there is something distinctive in the nature of what is proposed (ie is not just support to sustain the collaboration itself) that will have a sustained, beneficial impact on the area, and that there is evidence that the voices of people outside the consortium have influenced plans.
I’m trying to work out how organisations with a reach across several regions should focus their Expression of Interest. This strand seems very locally focussed. The communities we work with tend to be very dispersed - for example refugees and migrants - and we are interested in working with focussed targeted marginalised groups in a way that brings them into contact with larger communities (who may be more widespread) to effect learning and attitudinal change. During the pandemic, a surprise outcome has been the capacity to connect communities and organisations nationally and indeed internationally to do some of this work. Is this something that Esmée would be interested in?
It is true to say that there is a higher level of geographical definition in this strategic aim than in the other two. However, we have supported organisations such as Playing Out or Community Catalysts, for example, that work with local partners across different regions. It's the impact on local communities we're interested in and sometimes that doesn't mean the people we fund have to be situated in the same place. Try to include this in your Expression of Interest and ensure there's a connection to the relevant page of your website that explains things clearly.
Would you consider funding opportunities for international cultural exchange, where the benefits would be felt within UK communities?
Providing the work has a long-lasting impact on communities within the UK we can consider the costs of bringing international work into the UK. We would not be able to fund any work happening outside the UK even if a case could be made for a long-term benefit in the UK.
