Portsmouth100 Community Grants
The Portsmouth100 Community Grant Scheme was launched in November 2025 to provide individuals, businesses and organisations with the chance to secure funding for projects to celebrate pride in Portsmouth, our wonderful local communities, and culture in the city.
This project would ensure the legacy to Portsmouth100 was felt long after the year of celebrations had concluded, with funding awarded to forward-thinking projects that impacted people right across the city.
Applications are now closed and the successful schemes have identified. Some applicants were awarded funds to host events - which you can see on the Things To Do page. Others secured funding for longer-term projects:
Portsmouth Roller Wenches
'Blue is the Colour, Derby is the Game' is a documentary following the return of Portsmouth's own Roller Derby team, the Portsmouth Roller Wenches, to the Five Nations - the UK's annual Roller Derby Tournament. After losing every game during their 2024 effort, facing loss of funds and lack of members, the team has built itself up once more and is prepared to represent the strength and spirit of Portsmouth on the national stage.
The Little Bee Soap Co.
100 Hands Portsmouth 100 is a volunteer-led community initiative to create and gift 100 handmade, natural soaps to unsung heroes across Portsmouth. Each soap will be carefully crafted using traditional methods and natural ingredients, including locally sourced honey and beeswax to support local beekeepers. The soaps will be designed with Portsmouth-inspired elements such as waves, shells and costal colours, reflecting the city's identity and celebrating its centenary year.
Chat Over Chai
Our Common Ground: 100 years of Immigration to Portsmouth aims to establish a lasting collection that documents the history of 100 years of immigration to Portsmouth, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of our South Asian community members. By facilitating intergenerational engagement through oral histories, creative workshops, and collaborative storytelling, the group will seek to preserve and highlight these important narratives. The project will culminate in a pop-up exhibition featuring poems, stories, photographs, and artifacts gathered and produced throughout the initiative, serving as a meaningful tribute to the city’s rich diversity.
HSDC
Havant and South Downs College's Multilingual Writing Competition for Portsmouth Schools celebrates Portsmouth’s rich linguistic and cultural diversity. Pupils are invited to create an original poem or short story in any language other than English, on the theme of 'sharing and belonging'. The multilingual writing competition, launched as part of Portsmouth’s City of Languages initiative, celebrates Portsmouth’s cultural diversity and honours those with diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Farlington Wrap Around Service
Celebrating Portsmouth will celebrate the people who make this city such a special place. It will involve local children creating appreciation cards for members of the community, including emergency service workers; library staff; GP surgery teams; care home residents and workers; museum staff; and many more.
It will also include weekly litter-picking sessions to help care for and improve the local environment. Activities will conclude with a visit from Preacher the Storyteller, who will lead a special session celebrating the people of Portsmouth - past and present. This inspiring experience will encourage children to reflect on their own futures and think about who they would like to become.
Motiv8
For P100: The Youth Hub Mural Project, local charity Motiv8 will work collaboratively with a local artist to design and create a large mural inside its youth space. The mural will celebrate Portsmouth's 100-year anniversary, empowering young people to explore their identity, creativity and connection to the place where they live. Creative sessions will explore “what does Portsmouth mean to me". Through discussion and storytelling, participants will reflect on the places, people, culture and history of the city. Ideas will develop, ensuring the artwork is visually striking and suitable for the space.
The completion of the project will be celebrated with a mural unveiling, with young people and their families (plus community partners and the wider public) to be invited. This project will ensure that young peoples voices are part of the city’s centenary story and will leave a meaningful artistic legacy within our youth hub space.
Word of Mouth World CIC
'Waves of Sound: A look at Portsmouth's Grassroots Music History' is a documentary/short form series documenting the grassroots music history of Portsmouth. It will include interviews with key figures that have helped shaped the music scene in Portsmouth over the years.
The documentary will serve as a celebratory retrospective on Portsmouth's grassroots music achievements of the past, shining a light on key figures and offering industry advice to those in the present. For a long-term impact it is hoped there can be large format screenings of the documentary available online and physically in local venues, as well as copies distributed to all participants for use in EPKs.
Think Big Do Bigger CIC
Portsmouth WordSearch 100 is a community-led creative project that invites residents to take part by photographing single “found words” in their local area - from shop signs and murals to boat names, street markings and everyday messages that often go unnoticed.
This project is shaped by the people who take part. Contributions are gathered through workshops, community groups and open submissions, with participants helping to build a shared collection of words that reflect their neighbourhoods, experiences and everyday surroundings. By inviting people to look more closely at their environment, the project highlights the creativity already present across the city. The process encourages people to slow down, explore their surroundings and see familiar places differently, while contributing to a collective piece of work.
The final outcome will be a curated collage of 100 words, selected from community submissions to represent Portsmouth in its centenary year. This collage will be shared online and a printed version donated to a local community space, creating a lasting, co-created snapshot of the city.
Portsmouth Cricket Club
The cricket club located along Southsea Seafront applied for funding for new benches, the provision of which would replace the existing ones that are beyond their useful life. These new benches will encourage visitors to the club and support its links with the local community.
Nautical Archaeological Sub-Aqua Club
Withern 100, Scuba Diving Survey is a recreational underwater archaeology project on the wreck of the dredging ship 'The Withern', which sank 100 years ago this year in Langstone Harbour. The Sub-Aqua Club aims to produce a written boat report, including a historical background on the wreck and a detailed record of its current state, as well as a 3D photogrammetry model, a virtual tour of the site, a sea-life survey of the local marine life, and a short film about the project and the wreck.
By investigating this 100-year-old wreck, the project will bring to life some lost history of Langstone Harbour, celebrate the maritime history of Portsmouth, and spread awareness of that history to the local community.
Paulsgrove ARK
The Paulsgrove ARK community group will carry out 100 Acts of Random Kindness in Paulsgrove and Wymering.
These 100 acts will cost up to £10 each and will range from anything that could improve a residents day to purchasing hobby-based equipment for them. Paulsgrove ARK aims to empower residents and ensure that they are at the heart of everything the organisation does.
Paulsgrove has a strong history of community, with residents supporting each other. This project will be focused on fostering community, encouraging inclusion and improving on the already established community using an Asset-Based Community Development approach.
