Decision details

To outline the rationale for the Council to accept £425,000 of pre-awarded grant funding from the National Lottery Reaching Community Fund. This funding will finance the delivery of the Council’s Swift: Enabling Sustainable Migrant Communities in North Yorkshire project. The project will be delivered for migrant communities across North Yorkshire and thus falls within the key decision criteria. Corporate agreement is needed before a formal grant agreement can be entered into with the funder.

To accept £425,735 over three years of external grant funding from National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund in agreement with the Executive Member for Finance and the Executive Member for Corporate Services.

Swift is an integral part of the work of the Migrant Programmes Team and the wider Localities Service; it is included as part of the Council’s Corporate Plan. The project will ensure migrants in North Yorkshire, from refugee, asylum seeking and economic backgrounds, are able to enjoy equitable access to Public and Voluntary Services as well being able to represent themselves and advocate for their own community issues. It will focus on four areas of delivery over three years beginning in April 2025; professional advice and casework, community development, an information and awareness campaign and a VCSE capacity building programme. It has been developed through an intensive UKSPF funded grassroots research programme, ‘Community Conversations’, that engaged with over 140 migrants from across the county from 10 different nationalities. Swift has been developed according to identified migrant community need.

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