SSEN has called on communities, councils, charities and local groups to "get their applications in" for this year's Resilient Communities Fund ahead of the closing date on Monday 31 July.

This latest and final Resilient Communities Fund of £437,000 enables communities across the north of Scotland and central southern England to apply for awards that will help them to build resilience in the face of prolonged power interruptions, for example during storms and severe weather events which can damage the electricity infrastructure.

Running until Monday 31 July, the fund is available to eligible communities, councils and charities in grants ranging from £1,000 to £10,000. In exceptional cases, involving multi-community applications, funding up to a maximum of £40,000 can be considered. 

The deadline for applications to the fund is 5pm on Monday 31 July, and applicants are asked to consider the following criteria for funding, which seeks to support projects falling under these two categories:

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• Resilience for emergency events - To enhance community facilities, services and communication specifically to support the local response in the event of a significant emergency such as extended power loss. 

• Vulnerability - To protect the welfare of vulnerable community members particularly during significant emergency events such as extended power loss, through enhancing their resilience and improving community participation and effectiveness. 

SSEN's Resilient Communities Fund is now in its ninth year, and in that time has seen a wide variety of applications that have all sought to boost communities through improving resilience and responding to the needs of their residents in adverse and difficult circumstances. 

The SSEN Resilient Communities Fund Panel, made up of organisations with expertise in community resilience planning, will review applications and determine which projects should receive funding, with the successful applications announced in the autumn. Set up in 2015, the Resilient Communities Fund has provided £4.7 million to 680 not-for-profit community groups and charities. Following the conclusion of this final year of the Resilient Communities Fund, SSEN Distribution will be developing and launching a new fund in late autumn of 2023. While continuing to support community resilience, this new fund will seek to include environmental resilience and the adoption of low carbon technologies. Full details and timescales will be announced later this year.