London region update
November edition
Changing Spaces
Ecominds
Kensington and Chelsea Mind hosted the launch of an exciting new grants scheme being delivered by Mind on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund. Crowds gathered on a sunny September afternoon to the sound of steel pans and a chorus of birds and insects that have set up home in the Meanwhile Wildlife Gardens run by the local Mind group and its volunteers. It was the perfect setting to declare Ecominds, a scheme that aims to promote mental well-being and enhance the natural environment, officially open for applications.
Over the next five years, Ecominds will distribute £7.5m to 125 innovative eco-projects across England. Community groups, schools and businesses are all eligible to apply and must show how they will involve local people with experience of mental distress in their plans. Ideas for projects could include a school getting together with members of their local Mind association to beautify a run-down park or a community art group creating sculptures for the grounds of a local mental health hospital.
The Big Lottery Fund’s England Chair, Sanjay Dighe, who attended the launch said:
“The Big Lottery Fund is very proud to support the Ecominds scheme, which will have such a positive impact on people’s wellbeing. Projects funded through the programme will help to raise mental health awareness and bring people together, while also improving the environment for local communities across England.”
Ecominds is one of five organisations being funded by Changing Spaces, the Big Lottery Fund’s environment-led programme which focuses on three priority areas – community spaces, local community enterprise and access to the natural environment.
With a variety of schemes to improve green spaces, increase access to nature, grow local food and help community groups to reduce the amount of energy they use, there is plenty of scope for projects in London to access grants.
Find out more www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_changing_spaces about all five schemes that are open for applications under the Changing Spaces programme.
Community Spaces
At the end of July 2008 Community Spaces opened its doors to the eagerly awaited large and flagship grants.
Community Spaces is a £50 million open grants programme that is managed by Groundwork UK on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund as part of its Changing Spaces programme
The launch of the large and flagship grants means that groups are now able to expand their horizons further and apply for bigger pots of money to create and re-vamp green spaces.
The larger grants will be distributed on a competitive basis and four large (£50,000 - £100,000) and one flagship (£100,001 - £450,000) grant will be awarded in each region in England.
Make sure your project in London does not miss out. Large and flagship grants are only open for one round of bidding until January 2009. There is a two-stage application process and applicants successful at stage 1 will be allocated a Facilitator to support the development of their project.
Community Spaces are looking for groups with innovative, practical and sustainable ideas that will benefit areas in need of physical improvement. Possible large and flagship projects may include canal side improvements, cycle path routes, nature reserves, woodlands or city farms.
Further information about large and flagship grants and full eligibility criteria is available on the Community Spaces website:
Designing and managing research workshops and surgeries
Third Sector First (3sf) have been appointed to provide support to potential applicants to the Big Lottery Fund’s Research Programme
3sf is a collaboration of specialists in research and social policy, working primarily in the public and ‘third’ sectors. It is linked through past or current membership to several of the UK’s leading university research centres and has conducted project evaluations in many subject areas, including health, social care, community safety, childcare and addictions.
3sf is holding a series of workshops and surgeries for applicants registered with the Research programme.
The workshops will cover developing research questions, organising research, user involvement, dissemination and ethics.
Surgeries will also be held for individual applicant organisations with reasonably well-developed ideas for their application
The workshops and surgeries will take place in London on 20 and 21 November 2008 at the Big Lottery Fund office.
These events are not designed for professional researchers or experienced commissioners of research, but for voluntary and community sector organisations that are relatively or entirely new to research. In order to attend a workshops or surgery, delegates must first register for the programme and then provide their ID number on the booking form.
Find out more about the Research Programme and register.
If you are already registered on the Research programme, book a place on the workshop or surgery.
Celebrating success in London
September saw London theatre group, Haringey Shed move into their new home at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham. At the launch to celebrate this exciting development, the audience was treated to performances from the young and talented members of the theatre group.
Haringey Shed received £123,510 in May 2007 under the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme to expand its inclusion theatre project to ensure that the theatre continues to be representative of the different ethnic groups in the borough and that the sessions are accessible to all.
The project will also help build a stronger community where children with special needs are included and valued and can work alongside their peers.
Six organisations in London have been awarded grants from the Big Lottery Fund’s Advice Plus programme. This £18 million scheme recognises the importance of people in greatest need having better access to legal advice to help them overcome disadvantage and improve their lives.
Citizens Advice Bureaus in Barking & Dagenham, Barnet and Southwark and have all been awarded grants to expand and develop their services and increase accessibility for hard to reach groups in their local communities.
In North London the Enfield Disability Action group received a grant to promote joint working to enable those in greatest need with physical disabilities to access legal services.
Two London-based law centres in North Kensington and South West London also received close to £1million to develop collaborative working and increase access to advice for disadvantaged people.
Breathing Places
This Autumn will see new green spaces opening up all over London as part of the BBC’s Breathing Places Campaign.
The Breathing Places programme is a joint initiative led by theBBC and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Since 2006 BIG has awarded £8.5 million to1073 projects through the dedicatedsmall grant scheme, allowing communities to transform the local environment and create wildlife-friendly green spaces.
A ‘Reading Garden’ at Carnegie Library in Lambeth and a working organic kitchen garden in Chiswick are just some of the projects in London welcoming visitors and encouraging the local community to celebrate their natural environment.
Support for Social Enterprises in London
London Rebuilding Society holds a number of specialist training events throughout the year on a range of business topics of special interest to social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and those advising them.
A series of half-day courses covering topics from cash flow to profit and loss will be held this Autumn. These are completely free of charge to eligible participants as part of the Social Enterprise Transforming the Lives of London (SETLL) programme of support for social enterprises funded by London Councils.
Workshops will also be held in late November covering PR and effective media relations.
Accountability and learning research report
The findings from the largest piece of research that has yet been carried out into monitoring and evaluation have been published in a new report, Research for Accountability and Learning: Developing Monitoring and Evaluation in the Third Sector.
Available from the Charities Evaluation Services, the report calls for a greater match between third sector accountability requirements and the information needs for developing learning in the sector.
Big thinking
Big thinking is your chance to give us your views and help us plan for the future. Big Lottery Fund is responsible for distributing half of the good causes money raised by the National Lottery. Our mission is to bring real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need.
Over the next few months we’ll be asking you to help us shape our funding policies. These will guide how we award funds to the projects that help us make the biggest impact with your Lottery pound.
You can have your say by visiting the website from 17 November 2008.