As a follow-up to our post earlier this year, The Clore Duffield Foundation recently announced 12 awards – totaling £93,490 – to support innovative Jewish activity outside of London.

Sparks: The Clore Jewish Development Fund is a national initiative, created by the Clore Duffield Foundation and launched in January 2007, to support Jewish communities outside of London. The Foundation is the founder of the Jewish Community Centre for London, a non-religious community centre inspired by similar centers in the USA and Europe. Sparks celebrates the creation of the capital’s first JCC and mirrors its ambitions and ethos.

The 12 projects span education, outreach, regeneration, youth work and capacity building. The successful projects reflect the diversity of activity within the Jewish community in the UK across both rural and urban settings and denominational boundaries. Applications were attracted from across the country – from the West Country to Glasgow and two organizations were successful for the second year in a row: Limmud and Exeter Hebrew Congregation. In Round Two the Fund supported a wide range of programmes including an ambitious cross-generational reminiscence project in Manchester, regional social action events with Mitzvah Day, human-rights themed regional Shabbat programs, five education programs for all ages across the country and practical community building in the South East and East of England.

Applications this year showed a flair for creative social action and outreach projects and demonstrated a clear understanding of the impact on a chosen local Jewish community, were inclusive to all interested parties and focused on innovative ways to strengthen and enrich regional Jewish life.

Sparks: The Clore Jewish Development Fund will support projects totalling up to £100,000 each year with a maximum grant of £20,000 available. A full list of the grants awarded is now available on the Foundation’s website.

The Fund will be open to applications for Round 3 from January 2009 and will close in late April 2009.