West Midlands Railway launches community fund

Communities from across the West Midlands Railway network are being invited to put forward ideas for help transform their areas.

The "Your Community, Your Fund" scheme is now open for applications and aims to inspire people to get involved with the railway, as well as supporting established groups by helping them to enrich their local communities. The fund has already supported a number of community-led projects and is set to do the same during 2022.

The process of applying is simple. WMR is inviting communities and social enterprise groups to submit their projects – which will then undergo a selection process. If chosen, each project will need to be completed by February 2023 and will receive support from WMR’s dedicated rail and community teams to help bring their visions to life.

The application window is open until Wednesday 11 May, with successful bids due to be announced in coming weeks. The scheme is open to local communities and social enterprises that are in need of funding, to help develop projects across the WMR network – with the core focus to deliver significant benefits to their local community and station.

Last year, WMR supported 21 exciting projects across its network – which helped to provide a great number of benefits to the environment, as well as social enhancements and station improvements. Projects included heritage, arts, and community wellbeing programmes, as well as supporting schemes such as ‘Rail and Rambles’, ‘Poetry Trails’ and improving confidence in rail travel. To find out more about the 2021 projects visit here.

Fay Easton, head of stakeholder and community, at West Midlands Railway, said: “I am delighted to help launch this community funding initiative once again. The work our communities achieved last year was impressive and the team were so proud to have been involved.

“The railway is an important aspect of every community and it’s great to see the work that takes place when people and passengers work together as well as the immense effort they go to, to create a cherished railway. We are looking forward and excited to see the variety of projects submitted for this year’s round of funding.”

The Your Community, Your Fund scheme is financed by the Department for Transport. Under the scheme, WMR and sister company London Northwestern Railway will invest in community projects across the network over the coming months.

If you’re interested in applying for WMR’s ‘Your Community, Your Fund’ 2022 funding or would like to find out more, visit here. To find out whether your organisation and project concept is eligible for the funding, please visit here.