South West region update
November edition
Big thinking
From November 2008 BIG will be consulting on its strategic plan for the years 2009-2015. We expect the consultation to be focused on where BIG can add value. It will build on lessons from our previous programmes and from the activities of others who seek to support communities and people in need.
If you would like to find out more, please visit the Big thinking website.
Better access to advice
People in Bath, Bristol, Taunton, West Devon and Wiltshire will soon get better access to advice on legal rights and responsibilities as over £2 million in Lottery funding is invested in improving advice services in the South West.
West Devon Citizens Advice Bureau will lead a partnership of advice agencies to improve services for people in rural areas with £477,191. The five-year project will provide accessible general legal advice. A common referral system will be developed between partners, along with a website and a system to provide advice via email. Volunteers will also be trained and outreach services developed.
Bath and District Advice Consortium led by Bath and District Citizens Advice Bureau has been awarded £461,435 to develop advice services across Bath and North Somerset. A telephone service will be set up to direct callers to the most appropriate advice provider. The project will also allow the consortium partners to improve access to services, formalise standards and ensure that all partners achieve a recognised quality mark.
Bristol Resource Centre, operating as Avon and Bristol Law Centre has been awarded £419,621 to improve access to advice and legal services in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. A partnership of 19 advice giving organisations will develop sustainable advice services that meet the needs of the most vulnerable communities.
Wiltshire Advice Partnership, led by West Wiltshire Wide Citizens Advice Bureau, has been awarded £459,141 to deliver high quality, relevant, accessible advice across the whole of Wiltshire.
And the Somerset Advice Network, led by Taunton and District Citizens Advice Bureau, receives an award of £217,020 to coordinate a wider forum of ninety advice giving organisations in Somerset, offering basic awareness training and setting up a referral system across the network.
These awards are from the Advice Plus programme and are part of £18 million of funding announced for local advice partnerships. The partnerships will improve services and accessibility, making free, high quality and appropriate advice readily available to those most in need.
National charity The Home Farm Trust (HFT) is receiving £358,975 for their project which will work in Cornwall, Devon, Bristol and South Gloucestershire to help people with learning disabilities to find meaningful employment. The project will see hundreds of people with learning disabilities across the South West becoming more active in their local communities and developing new social networks while building their confidence, independence and skills.
As part of the project, Supported Employment Officers will help beneficiaries find jobs that suit their skills and experience and will continue to support them until they are ready to carry out the role independently.
Barry Armstrong, HFT’s Regional Director for the Western Region, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have received this grant. The funding will really help people with learning disabilities move closer to employment, and also to contributing to and feeling more closely involved with their local communities.”
The money for the project comes from BIG’s Reaching Communities funding programme, which supports projects that improve the lives of people and communities across England.
Programme news
For the fourth year running, Big has teamed up with ITV to give out lottery funding to projects that will benefit local communities. Viewers will get the chance to vote to decide which local groups receive grants of up to £50,000.
Details of South West shortlisted projects will appear on our website after 29 October.
Read a case study about one of last year’s winning projects: [Handler onParseStart attached to 'case_castlefields_canal__river_park_association-link' (106175) on page 'southwest/about-sw/region-update-sw.htm'] Line 28: TypeError: objPage.customProperties has no properties
Castlefields Canal & River Park Association
Funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme and Natural England, Access to Nature is run by Natural England on behalf of a consortium of major environmental organisations. Some of the key messages for this programme are
- Interest in Access to Nature funding in the South West is very high and applications are likely to be very competitive. To stand the best chance of success projects should offer good value for money and clearly demonstrate how they will engage communities and groups identified as priorities in our regional targeting statement (available on our website, www.naturalengland.org.uk) with the natural environment.
- Projects need to be delivered in partnership and we strongly recommend that organisations with similar objectives work together rather than compete for the limited funding. Natural England regional advisers can advise potential applicants if there are other similar projects nearby they could work with.
- Grants are available from £50,000 to £500,000 but it is likely that only a few top level grants will be approved so we are particularly keen to see good quality smaller projects coming through.
- Open for Stage 1 applications until June 2010 and further information is available on the website www.naturalengland.org.uk/accesstonature . If you think you have a project that may fit well with the criteria then you should contact the Access to Nature South West Adviser, Jo Lewis, who will give further advice on eligibility and application processes.
Social Enterprise transforming lives
November 20th 2008 is Social Enterprise Day: a national day to celebrate and promote social enterprise
Social enterprises are businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need. This year, RISE wants to find out how social enterprise is transforming lives. RISE has launched a regional photography competition in search of the best photograph that shows what social enterprise can do. Take a photo and show how social enterprises are changing the world one community at a time. Not only do you help tell the story of social enterprise, you could also win a chance to shadow Gaynor Coley, Managing Director of the Eden Project and go through to the national final. Send your photo to photocompetition@socialenterprise.org.uk
Take me to the website for Social Enterprise Day
Awards for All
A total of £357,113 is being distributed to 57 groups across the South West in the latest round of awards.
Devonport Youth, Community & Music will spend £9,875 on staging 25 separate musical performances on consecutive weekends at its premises on Fore Street, Devonport. From now until January audiences will be able to see young local bands performing a range of rock, acoustic and hip-hop on Saturdays and occasional Fridays. The community group will also help budding light and sound engineers stage the events and invite more experienced South West bands to take part and mentor the fledgling musicians. Nick Vidal-Hall, Co-ordinator, said: “The idea is both to support local bands and to provide a real service to the young people in the area, not to mention putting on great events for audiences. We’re interested in encouraging and supporting young people to do things they really enjoy which can also help them learn new skills, confidence and ambition. Devonport in particular is an area in which there is very little opportunity and entertainment for young people and we want to be part of the area’s ongoing regeneration with plans for a small-scale cinema and other community events in the future.
“Bands from all over Plymouth will be involved and the young people who use our centre have already been working really hard to make the building into a good venue, scrimping and saving to do it up. We now have all the sound and lighting systems we need in place and invite audiences young and old to come along and see the groups for themselves. It’s a friendly, welcoming environment and there will be four or five performers per gig to enjoy.”
Knowle West Health Park Community Interest Company will receive £10,000 to pilot the ‘arts on prescription’ scheme in which GPs can refer patients experiencing moderate mental health issues such as anxiety and stress to weekly arts classes. The project is part of a wider drive to improve the well being of the Knowle West area, which suffers high economic deprivation and an average life expectancy 11 years lower than Bristol’s more affluent regions.
Other grants made in this round of awards include: Singing for Wellbeing in Penzance, who receive £4,413 to provide weekly singing sessions to help people with dementia communicate, and Dorset Castle Research Group in New Milton, who will spend £10,000 on researching Norman castles.
To read more about any of our recent grants, go to www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/newsroom
Latest news & events...
Postcards from the Park is a celebration of parks of the UK through photographs that reflect their role in our everyday lives. The competition was set up by Big, Heritage Lottery Fund and Green Space and was open to anyone. The winners were announced recently and their pictures will go on display in an exhibition. You can also see the pictures online.
www.postcardsfromthepark.org.uk
With the Olympic and Paralympics in Beijing producing so many British medallists, and London 2012 now less than four years away, this award seeks to recognise the people who devote their time, energy and effort to helping more people enjoy sport around the UK.
Last year’s overall winner was the remarkable 85-year-old Margaret Simons of Bardwell Football Club in Bicester. She founded the club in 1964, bought the nets kits, balls, medical kits and refreshments from her own money, and was chair, secretary, treasurer, manager and coach to the 20 children in her first year. An estimated nearly 3,000 children between ages of seven and 16 have now represented the club, which has teams in four different leagues.
Nominations for the 2008 BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award can be made at www.bbc.co.uk/sportsunsunghero The closing date is Friday 31st October. 15 regional winners will be chosen from around the BBC's Nations and Regions in November. The overall 2008 winner will be announced on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show live on BBC ONE on Sunday December 14 from the Echo Arena in Liverpool. Bursaries of up to £2,500 are also available to each regional winner, to help them and their club in their work with sport in the community.
South West Forum's 2008 annual conference and AGM
Independent and Indispensible: the future for South West social purpose organisations
Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th November 2008
The Connaught Hotel, Bournemouth
For full details of what's on offer, please download the programme and booking information.
South West office
If you have any questions about the work of the South West office email us.
If you have general enquiries please call the BIG advice line on 0845 4 10 20 30.