A grant scheme has been launched by St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath councils to help organisations improve the lives of residents.

Community Chest is a fund set up by Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council to simplify the range of funding the two councils previously offered.

Organisations applying for funding will be asked to show how it will help the two councils to support families and strengthen community resilience.

The councils will also be able to commission voluntary, charity or community groups to carry out a project.

About?£110,000 is available for 2015/16, with more than £500,000 available for 2016/17.

Robin Millar, Forest Heath District Council’s cabinet member for families and communities, said: “Charitable, community and voluntary organisations can bring enormous change and improvements to a local area.

“The Community Chest will allow us to work with these organisations to enable or encourage them to innovate and explore new ways of delivering their services, to the benefit of local residents across west Suffolk.”

Robert Everitt, St Edmundsbury Borough Council’s cabinet member for families and communities, said: “It is also about helping our communities identify their own priorities rather than politicians and national bodies dictating to them.

“We will be playing an active role as a partner investing in a charity, community group or voluntary organisation, in order that they can deliver a service that local people actually need.”

More information about the Community Chest will be available at the Smarter Funding: Better Outcomes conference at the Apex in Bury St Edmunds on July 15 from 9.30am.

To book a place phone Kirsty Downes on 01284 757040 or email kirsty.downes@westsuffolk.gov.uk

The closing date for grant applications for 2015/16 is the end of July and the deadline for applications for 2016/17 is the end of September.

For more information visit www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/community