East Midlands region update
August 2010
Big invests in Local Trust
Big Local Trust, which launched on 27 July, aims to get people involved in deciding how to improve the areas where they live.
Up to £200 million will be invested in 100-150 urban and rural neighborhoods in England that may have had difficulty obtaining funding in the past.
Of the 50 neighborhoods identified so far, four are in the East Midlands. Each will receive at least £1million through Big Local Trust.
These areas are:
- Derby - Allenton
- Northampton - Lumbertubs, Lings and Blackthorn Estates
- Mansfield - Warsop Parish
- East Lindsey - Mablethorpe/Trusthorpe/Sutton on Sea
If you’re not in one of the areas above, there are still plenty of opportunities to help your community. Check out the Communities page on BIG’s website which includes details about all our relevant funding programmes currently open, lessons learnt from projects and previous experience, and inspirational videos and podcasts from community based projects
Recent awards
Reaching Communities
Two projects have been awarded more than £740,000 this month through the Reaching Communities programme.
Derbyshire Housing Aid received £436,492 for "Bridging the Advice Gap", which will enable the organisation to increase staff capacity for providing specialist legal advice services and support for people requiring housing, debt and welfare benefits for people who are ineligible for legal aid and currently vulnerable to being homeless.
Kim Miles from Derbyshire Housing Aid said: “Accessible legal advice services are essential, particularly in the difficult economic times we are in when people are facing greater challenges to maintain a stable home and finances. This funding means we can address this escalating need by providing specialist advice and representation to people experiencing housing and debit problems.”
Framework Housing Association received £308,000 for "The Workshop" which has been created for vulnerable and excluded people in Nottingham who have not been able to access NVQ opportunities. Individuals will be offered bite size training in key skills which can lead to further learning, volunteering and employment. Skills areas will include painting and decorating, joinery and brick-laying.
A Workshop service user said: “I was homeless and was put in touch with The Workshop. I enjoyed the courses because it’s not like college, you can go at your own speed and you learn much more than just painting and using tools. I’ve made a couple of good friends here. What I’ve got has led me to volunteer with Paint It and I am now ready to look for work and give something back.”
Find out more about Reaching Communities and how to apply
Awards for All
A total of 38 groups are celebrating across the East Midlands with a slice of a total funding pot of £265,139 to provide a range of activities including a pedal car project for Scouts in Harborough and a play and gardening project for children in Kilsby, near Rugby
Debbie Billington of Harborough District Explorer Scouts, said: “Pedal car racing is an extremely friendly sport where everyone is ready to help each other. I think this is because of the number of scout teams involved.To be viablefor thelong term, we need a whole working car of our own.
Sarah Wurr, Committee Chair, Kilsby Preschool, said: “We will be usingthe Awards For All grant to re-do our garden and play area once our new building has been completed. The build will be going ahead in September and once it is finished the whole outside area will need to be revamped with fences, paths, a paving area and sheds for storage and play equipment.”
Other grants include £5,040 awarded to East Coast Martial Arts to teach martial arts to people in the rural areas close to Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. Cruse Bereavement Care Nottinghamshire Area receives £933 to send volunteers to a national conference to access specialist information and training.
In Derbyshire, Denby Institute and Recreation Ground has been awarded £9,370 towards the renovation of the village hall. And Leicestershire and Rutland Federation of Young Farmers receive £2,000 to develop a website containing information about community volunteering, agriculture and country life for existing and potential new members.
Big day of Big lunches
The date for this year’s Big Lunch was 18 July and saw one million people up and down the country break out the bunting and sit down to eat lunch together in a simple act of community and friendship. In the East Midlands region a total of 114 lunches, large and small, took place.
Rebecca Strickland organised 1 of the 14 events that took place in Leicester and said:
“It was a lovely little tea party where neighbours, friends and musicians came together and got to know one another, in St Mary’s Triangle. A great time was had by all and a newly formed team of organisers are already planning next year’s Big Lunch, which they want to be bigger and better!”
Having a strong sense of community where she lives is really important to Big Lunch organiser Lisa Warner of Granary Road in Northampton. She was a little nervous about approaching neighbours that she didn’t know on the street, but was amazed at the positive response to the idea of a Big Lunch.
“About 30 people turned up armed with food and bunting on the day and children decorated the street with chalk drawings. They couldn’t shut the street as it’s a bus route, but the bus driver smiled and hooted each time he passed! New friendships have formed and we’re planning a Big Lunch in 2011.”
It’s never too early to start planning next years and keep an eye out on the Big Lunch website if you are eagerly anticipating next year’s date.
Youth in Focus
Youth in Focus is a £30 million programme to support vulnerable young people across England. The programme aims to support young carers, young people leaving care and young people leaving young offenders institutions to make successful transitions in their lives.
The programme will fund voluntary and community sector organisations to improve young people’s confidence, skills and knowledge and provide more effective support that is joined up with other services. We also expect to fund three England-wide projects that raise national awareness of the issues young people in these groups face.
You can find out more about Youth in Focus in the programme guide and we will be running briefing sessions for potential applicants and partners in September this year.
We have limited funds available for this programme, £30 million UK wide. We will probably only be able to fund about 30 projects across England, which means only a few in each region. We will expect applicants to form a partnership of voluntary, public or private sector led by a voluntary sector organisation.
What next?
You can visit the Youth in Focus website for more information or download a booking form for one of our briefing events.
Community Wildlife
Big Lottery Fund launched Community Wildlife at the beginning of June. Inspired by this, Sue Crabtree from Tattershall Primary School contacted us with an invite to the opening of the school’s new wildlife garden, funded through Awards for All.
Sue Barsby, Regional Outreach Officer for the East Midlands went along to find out more:
The garden project involves three schools in Tattershall who have all been working with Sarah Price, landscape designer and RHS Gold winner. Sarah designed a garden installation for Tattershall Castle’s “House of Bling” exhibition last year and she was very enthusiastic about working with local children and schools to continue that work.
“I visited the schools and ran workshops with the children,” she explains to me while sitting among the trees and shrubs. “I asked them what they thought a landscape designer did and from there we explored every aspect – from practical work including measuring the land and drawing it to scale to actually designing how a garden should look and what it should have in it.
“The designs the children came up with were so imaginative. They had clearly thought very hard about the environment and the landscape, and they are so observant of wildlife.”
“Once we saw how enthusiastic the children were about working with Sarah, it became even more important that we made their designs a reality,” explains Sue Crabtree. “That’s why we applied to Awards for All for the funding to help us actually build the garden. The whole community – mums and dads, grandparents and children – have all helped to build the garden and given their time and effort to help us create it.”
The garden is built on what used to be a very neglected and run down wildlife garden by the school entrance. It now has butterfly mounds – planted out with butterfly and bee-friendly plants, bee houses, a bird watching hide and feeders, a compost bin, log piles for insects to live in and trees, shrubs and plants recycled from the event at the Castle in 2009. The whole garden has disabled access for wheelchairs.
“We’ve had to water the garden every day,” said Caitlin, aged 10. “It’s been so hot and sunny that the plants have needed water. My favourite bit is the hide, you can watch the birds and get some shade at the same time.”
Community Wildlife is still open for applications, visit the webpage for more information.
Equata Horse Assisted Therapy podcast
The project received an Awards for All grant for £10,000 in February 2010, we visited the project and met Jo Hawkins, Nathaly Stobbe and Lucy Hastings to find out more:
“About 20 years ago I had a bad car accident,” Jo explains. “I had quite bad injuries and was unable to work for a long time. I’d also got scars on my face which really affected my confidence and I didn’t want to go out anywhere. I’d always had horses, and it was through working with them that I was able to restore my fitness levels and my confidence – they don’t judge you.
I then worked as a community mental health worker for five years but I preferred the idea of helping people naturally, rather than using drugs. That was when I met Nathaly and we went on the Egala training for equine assisted therapy.”
“We work with people who have a range of issues,” Nat says. “Some of them might be children on the autistic spectrum, or in danger of being excluded from school due to family problems; one lady was having trouble dealing with an illness. We worked with a woman who had a history of abusive relationships and the horse she was working with started to nudge or push her with its head and body. It recognised that she saw herself as a passive victim and the treatment it gave her was indicative of the past relationships she’d suffered. Once she recognised that, and was able to handle a horse coming at her, she realised she could apply that energy and confidence elsewhere.”
Hear a poem Lucy Hastings wrote about Equata in our new podcast:
Steel Pantasic in Worksop
On Wednesday 28 July, the East Midlands team visited the Town of Worksop in Nottinghamshire, in order to hand out the latest edition of Big magazine. We had a plot of the Town Centre to base ourselves and were joined by a steel band called “Steel Pantastic” which BIG funded through Awards for All. It was market day in Worksop, so footfall was at its peak. At 10.30am, armed with 800 Big magazines, donning our Big t-shirts and the sound of “tequila” from the steel band in the background, we set out to hand out all of the magazines.
During the morning we had chance to join in with the band and learn the technique. This is the first time that the band had ever performed in public and a few members said they had sleepless nights before hand. Janet a member of the group said:
“We can't thank the Big Lottery Fund enough for giving us this fantastic opportunity. We really enjoyed todayand we know it will be the start of something wonderful for us, the community and people of all ages. Thank you all once again.”
By 12.30pm we’d exhausted our supply of magazines, all 800 had been handed out and went home humming “Michael row your boat ashore”!.
Bassetlaw CVS a film of Steel Pantastic in action.
You can view the latest edition of Big Magazine online or contact us to order some print copies.