Somerset Crisis and Resilience Alliance

We’re looking for 2 types of Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) partners to establish a joined-up, visible local support network:

• Community Anchors, which will be larger, established VCSFE groups with paid staff and a physical presence.
• Community Connectors, which will be smaller, often more volunteer-run VCSFE groups that can reach specific areas or groups of people.

This page describes how to submit an expression of interest (EOI) to become a Community Anchor. We’ll issue guidance on applying to be a Community Connector later.

We expect to fund 1 or 2 Anchors in each of Somerset’s 12 Neighbourhood Areas. You can see the areas on Connect Somerset.

As a Community Anchor, you’d take on 4 roles as part of the Alliance. Some parts are fixed, because they’re what make this a county-wide alliance with a consistent approach rather than lots of separate local efforts. Others are genuinely yours to shape around what your area needs, particularly the practical support you offer and how you work with Community Connectors.

• Shared front door. Your premises need to be accessible and well located in your community, so people can reach you easily. Taking this on might mean extending your opening hours, or having more staff on hand to greet and support people, so someone in hardship can always find a way in. Please note that you won’t be expected to deliver regulated debt or welfare advice yourselves.
• A common offer. As a baseline, you’ll need to have staff with the capacity to identify when someone needs help, triage those in financial hardship, and manage referrals through Somerset Frontline, escalating cases to other Alliance partners, such as Citizens Advice Somerset, where specialist support is needed. Beyond that, we want you to bring your own ideas. You may offer practical support such as help with food, essential items or everyday skills, shaped by what your community actually needs.
• Convening and supporting Community Connectors. You will act as the route in, mentor and local pathway for smaller, less formal groups in your Neighbourhood area.
• Contributing to the wider system. This will include registering on Somerset Frontline, signing up to the Alliance’s privacy statement and data sharing agreement so information can be shared safely between partners, using shared communications, taking part in training, and helping build a clear, up-to-date picture of local support.

If you decide to submit an EOI you will need to provide your initial thoughts on each of these points.

We’re offering each Community Anchor a grant of between £40,000 and £80,000 per year.

Each of the 12 Neighbourhood areas has its own outline funding allocation, based on population and levels of need. That allocation covers the Community Anchor grants in the area and the Community Connector grants that follow later. This will determine the final allocations and will be explored further if you’re shortlisted.

We intend to fund Community Anchors through to March 2029. Grants for 2027/28 and 2028/29 will be confirmed once the Alliance’s funding for those years is agreed with Somerset Council. We’ll tell you as early as we can if anything changes.

All grants will be restricted to the roles outlined above. In practice, we expect to mostly fund staff time, activity costs and programme participation costs, and we’ll contribute to shared overheads. We can also fund smaller equipment and building costs where they are needed for the Anchor role. This could include: 

• creating a private, comfortable space where someone can have a confidential conversation
• computers, tablets or Wi-Fi, so people can use Frontline and get online support
• furniture and signage to make your space welcoming and easy to find
• small works to support longer opening hours, such as lighting, heating or improved access.

We cannot fund the purchase of buildings or land, or any costs you commit to before your grant is awarded.

Alongside the grant we will offer a learning network for anchors as well as funded capacity building support.

SCF will provide a named contact through the application and grant period, and they’ll meet with you periodically around the programme’s reporting schedule and will be your first point of contact for any issues or changes.

Due to the nature of this work, we’re mainly interested in hearing from existing, well-established VCFSE groups based across Somerset’s 12 Neighbourhood areas.

However, part of the purpose of this EOI is to gauge the sector’s appetite for this work and we’d still be interested in hearing from you even if you do not think your group is an ideal fit.

You must submit your EOI by 5pm on Friday 4 September 2026. We may reopen for further EOIs at a later date, but only if we do not identify enough suitable partners during this window.

Decisions on whether groups will be asked to progress to submitting a full application/project breakdown will be communicated to them by the end of September.

We will ask for full applications/project breakdowns and costings to be submitted by mid-October and we aim to make awards soon after that.

We’re looking for 1 or 2 Community Anchors in each Neighbourhood area. We expect there to be more interest in this opportunity in some areas than others.

We’d encourage you to speak to other groups in your area before submitting your EOI. We’re happy to consider partnerships or other joint solutions that you believe will work best for your area.

If we do not shortlist your EOI we will provide feedback explaining why.

All EOIs received by the deadline will be assessed by SCF staff, who may share details with other members of the Alliance.

We’ll assess each EOI, and the basic information you give us about your group, against 5 things:

• How accessible and well placed your premises are, and your readiness to be a reliable point of contact.
• Your plan for identifying and referring people who need support, and the practical ideas you bring beyond that baseline.
• Your experience of working with smaller, informal groups, and your approach to convening a network of Community Connectors.
• Your experience of, and enthusiasm for, working collaboratively and sharing information across the wider Alliance.
• Your organisation’s current capacity: staff, premises, and experience of managing funding at a similar scale.

This won’t be a mechanical scoring exercise. Instead, a panel made up of SCF staff and Trustees will use these scores as a guide alongside other factors, such as the spread of groups across the Neighbourhood areas. Where several viable EOIs have been received from the same area we may also facilitate conversations between groups to explore joint approaches.

View our full scoring criteria.

You’re first required to submit a short EOI form using the button below. This collects the following basic details:

• Organisation name, and charity or company number if applicable.
• Confirmation of whether you’re submitting the EOI on your own or alongside others.
• Year established.
• Number of current FTE staff.
• Current annual income and reserve position.

You’ll then need to provide short answers to the following questions:

1. Shared front door. Tell us about your current premises and how accessible they are to your community. What would it take for you to be a reliable point of contact for people in financial hardship, for example, changes to opening hours or staffing? (250 words)
2. Common offer. How would you identify and triage people needing support, and refer them on through Somerset Frontline? Beyond that baseline, what practical support, such as help with food, essential items or everyday skills, would you want to offer, and why does that fit what your community needs? Tell us about both: how you would handle the baseline, and what else you would want to offer (250 words).
3. Convening Community Connectors. Tell us about your experience of working with or supporting smaller, informal groups in your area, and how you would approach bringing a network of Community Connectors together (250 words).
4. Contributing to the wider system. Tell us about your experience of partnership working, sharing data or information with other organisations, and taking part in shared training or branded initiatives (250 words).

If your EOI is shortlisted, you’ll then be required to prepare a project plan and budget, and provide supporting documents. These will include your safeguarding, health and safety, insurance and other policies.

We recognise this is a complex funding programme. The fund manager’s details are below and they’re available to help  if you need extra support, have any accessibility requirements or if English isn’t your first language.