Big Lottery Fund

These are the main studies that we have undertaken in this area:

• Fair Share has explored ways of giving areas that had received comparatively less Lottery funding opportunities to build their skills and confidence. Big Local builds on this work in England.
• Transforming Your Space involved communities in identifying and making practical improvements to their local environment. In doing this it built on the work of Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities.
• Village SOS inspires rural villages to set up community businesses that will breathe new life into the area.
• The evaluation of Community Libraries has shown how residents can work together to design and help run library services in imaginative and successful new ways.
• The Scottish Land Fund has allowed highland and island communities to take charge of land and buildings and so to turn around long-term economic and social decline. Growing Community Assets has built on this, extending the approach to urban areas.
• We run Community Assets on behalf of the Office for Civil Society in England. The programme supports the transfer of assets from local authorities to third-sector organisations. The Community Asset Transfer programme in Wales (jointly funded by the Welsh Government) supports the transfer of assets and offers running costs to the new services provided.
• We reviewed factors that contribute to rural isolation in England and Scotland, and how some of the projects we have funded have relieved it.
• In Start with People, Demos considered strengths of and possibilities for community-led action.
• We funded Pathways through participation, which considers factors that support active citizenship.

Please contact us if you’d like any further information.