Using funds to encourage sustainability in Hyndburn
Posted on Tue 16 August 2011
Case study: Prospects Foundation, Scaitcliffe Community Centre, Neighbourhoods Together, Maundy Relief Trust, Lancashire Youth Offending Team, Accent Regeneration.
After 7 years of Fair Share Trust funding in the Hyndburn area, the local Panel for programme implementation had just under £12,000 of remaining grant funding unallocated. Compared to the overall budget, this raised the question of how to support the community and tackle the established priorities with a relatively small amount left.
With guidance from the Community Foundation for Merseyside, which acts as the Local Agent for Fair Share Trust, the Panel decided to concentrate this funding on fostering the sustainability of existing projects rather than seeking new bids. Accordingly, with full support of the Panel, the Community Foundation for Merseyside granted these existing projects additional funds to conduct small evaluations.
The objective of the initiative is to demonstrate the positive impact of these projects in the community and thus attract further support, not only from volunteers and service users, but also from new sources of funding. The Scaitcliffe Community Centre is already adopting this strategy and using their evaluation to bid on a BIG Lottery Reaching Communities grant for a further five years. Even when small, the evaluations add value to the projects and guarantee a differentiated position in relation to other local initiatives.
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