From neighbourhood run allotments to lunch clubs, or community walking groups. The ‘Hey Neighbour’ project wants to promote and support new or existing neighbourhood networks, encouraging people to make connections, and help generate volunteering in communities.

The pandemic has made us more aware of the need to feel part of the wider community and the increased importance of neighbourliness on mental and physical wellbeing.

The purpose of the ‘Hey Neighbour’ grants scheme is to alleviate the impact on mental health during the recovery phase of Covid.

Hey Neighbour asks neighbourhoods what they need and what ideas might work to improve the wellbeing of the local area.

We believe that by helping neighbourhoods develop and fund ideas, people in communities are encouraged to offer their own resources, time, equipment to carrying out neighbourliness actions for their communities.

Our project aims to be contagious and travelled by word of mouth, people telling their friends and making friends as a result.

We want to widen participation with new people being involved and making new connections with people talking about and sharing things when they wouldn’t usually.

The Hey Neighbour project uses micro-grants to allow people to try something new and test if it works.

Our secondary small grants fund can be accessed by small community organisations to support communities and neighbourhoods to be connected.

We have previously worked with people who have brought neighbourhoods together in a variety of ways;

• A neighbourhood establishing a football tournament using both a grass football pitch and tabletop football

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• 100 residents gathered together in community play using the micro grants to fund venue hire, props and costumes

• Local streets and gathering together at a community centre for a post lockdown fish and chip supper and film night​​

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• Establishing a local knit and sew group that produces decorative knitted items for the community

We believe that approaches and the ideas coming from communities

are more likely to be sustained by the communities.

If you've got an idea for your local community, then we are you to help and support you.

Micro grants-

Micro grants of between £100 - £500 are available for people in Leeds to build and carry out an idea that brings together a neighbourhood or community to improve mental wellbeing by making human, rather than digital connects. 

Small grants -

Small grants of between £500 - £2,500 are available for not-for-profit organisations, with an annual turnover of less than £50,000, who have an idea or project that nurtures neighbourliness, draws on formal and informal volunteering or contributes to wider community building.

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Projects can support both geographical communities or communities that may not live in the same area as each other. We are particularly interested in hearing from volunteer led project that:

 Make good use of community spaces      Are based in Leeds     Activities that are offline

Typically, we fund the following overheads;

• Volunteer expenses

• Publicity costs

• Equipment 

• Room hire

All our grants will contribute to our overall Neighbourliness campaign.

Please read our Terms & Conditions

At Hey Neighbour, a central part of our work is to build with our communities, a campaign that improves mental health during the recovery phase of the pandemic.

Through our community partners we will develop key messages that encourage neighbourliness which are developed from the positive inspiration of neighbourhoods – we start with your ideas, not yours!

‘Hey Neighbour’ wants to be community-focused, community driven and locally based’

‘The campaign should help build and support partnerships and networks’