Funding boost for arts and culture activities in deprived areas

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has released details of a £29m fund aimed at boosting volunteering and connecting people with others in disadvantaged areas.

The Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) Fund includes a £5m commitment to expand existing offers of arts, culture and heritage activities across 27 target areas.

This section of the funding programme will be delivered by Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, in partnership with Historic England.

DCMS has designated £19m of the KYN Fund towards supporting people living in disadvantaged areas to connect with others in their community and engage in volunteering, in a bid to improve wellbeing and pride in place.

From this total, £14m will be delivered by UK Community Foundations (UKCF) and a consortium of local community foundations across nine local areas: Wolverhampton, South Tyneside, Kingston-upon-Hull, Blackpool, Stoke-on-Trent, Great Yarmouth, Fenland, County Durham and Barrow-in-Furness.

This funding will be targeted at people who have not had opportunities to volunteer before, or who are experiencing loneliness.

The National Lottery Community Fund is investing £10m in match funding to work across the same target areas. 

The KYN Fund will run until March 2025. DCMS expects to announced details of organisations awarded grants through the fund later this year.

Areas eligible for KYN funding:

Barnsley
Barrow-in-Furness
Blackpool
Bolsover
Burnley
Cannock Chase
County Durham
Doncaster
Fenland
Great Yarmouth
Halton
Hartlepool
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
Kingston upon Hull
Knowsley
Middlesbrough
Rochdale
Sandwell
South Tyneside
Stoke-on-Trent
Sunderland
Tameside
Tendring
Thanet
Torridge
Wakefield
Wolverhampton