Community Spirit set to shine for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations
The National Lottery Community Fund is setting out a number of initiatives that enable communities across the United Kingdom to take part in celebrations marking Her Majesty The Queen’s historic reign.
The Platinum Jubilee is a momentous occasion that presents an opportunity for community spirit to shine. Thanks to National Lottery players people across the UK will be able to come together to celebrate, build relationships, and create a legacy for future generations.
To mark this The Platinum Jubilee Fund has been launched to enable communities across the UK to access a share of £3.5 million designed to support celebrations across the UK.
Watch this video as our Chair Blondel Cluff opens our Platinum Jubilee funding to applications.
In addition to The Platinum Jubilee Fund, grants of up to £10,000 from The National Lottery Awards For All programme – which gives out almost £80 million of National Lottery funding in all parts of the UK each year - will be available for community-led events throughout 2022.
The Platinum Jubilee weekend will also be celebrated with The Big Jubilee Lunch on June 5 2022. Supported by £2.3 million of National Lottery funding, this Jubilee-focused version of the annual Big Lunch event will see people from all over the UK come together to hold thousands of Big Lunches, giving them the opportunity to mark the commemorative event while building connections within their community.
Platinum Jubilee Fund - 70 Exemplar Projects
The Platinum Jubilee year marks 70 years of reign of Queen Elizabeth II, this is the longest ever reigning monarch and for that reason alone it’s significant. To mark the occasion, The Platinum Jubilee Fund will award grants of £30k-£50k to 70 exemplar projects across the UK that focus on three areas:
- Intergenerational and Young People - Strengthening relationships between generations and creating a legacy for future generations
- Community Renewal - Supporting new opportunities for people to develop skills and experiences in their local community, as well as opportunities to bring people together in new ways, and in new or different places and spaces
- Our Shared Natural World - Deepening our care and action locally for the natural world.
In order to help you understand what an exemplar project could look like we have provided some examples below. This isn’t an exhaustive list and we’d encourage you to have a look at the website and our eligibility criteria before you apply. Across all the projects we will be looking for those that:
- Are led by and centre young people
- That are creative and original
- That have a wide reach - we want everyone to be part of this Jubilee year and to have ways to participate.
Intergenerational and Young People
We know that we need to be looking to the future to create a better tomorrow for younger generations. We are interested in projects that strengthen relationships between generations and create a legacy for future generations using the Jubilee as a starting point for this.
This might include projects that -
- Offer intergenerational activities
- Have been co-created by young people and older people together
- Build something new in the community that will last
- Set up a long-term investment in the community
- Improve the community in ways that ensure it’s better for future generations
- Create a very visible legacy for the Jubilee
- Have a future-focus.
Community Renewal
Communities need to be at the forefront of developing solutions and change that enable them to thrive. We are looking for projects that create new opportunities for people to develop skills and experiences in their local community .
This might include projects that -
- Make use of local spaces and places and revive them
- Offer opportunities for people to come together for collective action
- Seed new local community business or local partnerships
- Support people in the community to develop new skills and provide new volunteering opportunities.
Our Shared Natural World
We know that taking care of our shared natural world is important to communities up and down the country. We want to support people to come together and deepen their care and action locally for the natural world.
This might include projects like -
- Community clean air schemes
- Community growing projects
- Young people initiatives in nature, rewilding, conservation, climate, environment etc.
- New ‘green’ community services
- Partnerships with local farms and growers to support community health systems.
Over the last 70 years we have seen such rapid change in our communities and the next 70 years will be no different. We look forward to seeing what communities will do to mark the Platinum Jubilee and what that legacy for the next 70 years will be as we collectively rise to the challenges we face.
Find out more about The Platinum Jubilee Fund