Blyth Valley, Tyne & Wear & Northumberland
Project: CVA Blyth Valley Community Development Programme
Date: June 2005 to June 2011
Grant Awarded: £587,450
About
To build the capacity of the community groups in the area, encourage volunteering, help set up new groups and to help raise funds for community projects.
A Community Development Worker funded through the Fair Share Trust is working closely with Seghill Community Association to raise funding for a new heating system, to replace flooring, install a new fire alarm and to upgrade the building. By March 2009 over £40,000 had been secured (not through Fair Share Trust) for the new heating system. This is significant in encouraging the committee to think about what needs to be done to the centre to encourage community use and to actually apply for funding, rather than just concentrate on every day use and day to day opening and closing. It is an old building in desperate need of upgrading, but the recognition of this and proposals to apply for capital funding has to come from the committee and not the Community Development Workers doing the work for them.
The potential of the building if it is decorated and upgraded will be considered in a piece of work being commissioned by Community Voluntary Action Blyth Valley. It will look at the use of all four community centres in the Fair Share Trust area and their management structure. It will outline potential joint working and management structure, for example a joint Development Trust that will benefit the centres long term. This may rejuvenate some of the committee and encourage more use by the local community.
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