Community grants

Techy Tea are an East Yorkshire Community Interest Group (CIC), dedicated to addressing the digital divide.  They empower elderly and vulnerable individuals though inclusive tech support, fostering community connections, home visits, and drop-ins in Nafferton, Bridlington and Beverley. 

The funding will help them grow as a professional CIC to pay for a portable water heater for drop-ins, branded polo shirts for staff and volunteers and the remaining towards a camera to help them record sessions and raise awareness across East Yorkshire.

"This funding being accepted marks the beginning of unleashing the true potential of Techy Tea.  We're going to be able to level up our image and be able to share what we do to so many more people."

Dominic Platt, Director

Groundwork work across Yorkshire with some of our most disadvantaged communities. Based in Hull for over 14 years they support a host of projects such as their “Shed” project - an inclusive hub that supports participants 8 to 90, helping people learn practical, therapeutic skills for life. 

Their demographic includes older people; those living with long-term mental/physical health-issues; those who are lonely and socially isolated; those who are socially and economically-disadvantaged; adults with additional needs; young people not in mainstream education including home schooled and vulnerable young people. Their grant will be used to purchase resources to expand their services/support for more participants and become more sustainable as a charity.

“Please pass on our gratitude for all those who chose our application to receive a grant. It is really lovely that they recognised the value of what we are doing and hope to build on.” 

Karen Tozer, Programme Manager

The Rainbow Centre supports the local community in the Gipsyville and Newington wards of Hull, providing an essential drop-in for the families that live there.  They are looking to change a room at the Rainbow Centre from a Conference Room into a full-time playroom. This is due to an increase in sessions, including play, baby massage and health checks. The funding will help towards essential sensory items for the younger children.

“As a Not-for-Profit Organisation, we rely on grants to support the running of the Family Hub at Rainbow.  Funding received from KCOM grants will enable us to purchase some much-needed sensory equipment to enable us to have the right resources in places for our play sessions.  We would like to thank KCOM for their contribution of £300 to enable us to do this.”

Wendy Drury, Early Help Manager

Reedness Primary are a small rural school, based in Goole devoted to giving children a rounded education which involves cooking, gardening, learning outdoors, computing, dance and drama - with a real focus on family and being at the heart of their community.   Their grant will support the purchase of two buddy benches which will enhance their wider work they are doing to improve their outdoor community facilities. The benches will be mutually beneficial as the children of Reedness Primary School could also use these to eat their lunches outdoors on warm days. These benches would also act as 'Buddy Benches' for children of different ages to encourage friendships and ensure that no one feels left out within our school.

“Thank you KCOM.  The Buddy Benches will positively impact the mental health of both the community and their children by bringing people together in an open space, allowing people of all ages to chat and for friendships to blossom.”

Matthew Herbert, Headteacher

The RE:Uniform project at Trinity Methodist Church was set up over five years ago to help stop the amount of school uniform being sent to landfill and to help the families in the HU postcode to obtain preloved and sometimes new uniform for free. They have a dedicated team of volunteers who collect uniform from our various drop off points across the Hull area, carefully sort the uniform into age ranges and put out any uniform that may need repairing or washing, then from the requests we get in from families, they will pick the Uniform requested and it is then given to the families.

“Thank you so much to KCOM for your help in getting a dedicated phone for the charity, and some plastic storage boxes to keep uniform in. The phone will help enormously for us contacting families requesting uniform and the boxes will help keep uniform in the best condition until we send it out to families. We can't thank you enough.”

Vikki Williams, Manager 

Anyone from a community in Hull, East Yorkshire or North Lincolnshire where KCOM services are available or being installed can apply for a grant.

Your application must be on behalf of a local community group, charity, voluntary group, club, school or other not-for-profit organisation, although you don’t need to work for them.

The grant must be used to benefit people living in our region. It can be used for specific purchases like sports or IT equipment, or to help fund big projects like building repairs. Grants must be used within six months of being awarded.

Our community grants panel is made up of KCOM employees who live and work in the region. They meet four times a year to consider every eligible application we've received during the previous three months. As an example, applications received in October, November and December will be looked at in January.

Our community panel is looking for applications that will make a positive difference to members of the local community. As a guide, applications to fund things that have longevity and a far reaching impact are more likely to be successful than applications for one-off events or items that can only be used once. Applications for venue hire, travel costs or marketing materials will not be considered.

Please complete the online application form below and your application will be considered for the next round of grants. Due to the volume of applications we receive, we are only able to contact those who have been successful.