MAKING LOCAL WOODS WORK

This is a scheme to look out for in the near future:

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has awarded £1.2 million to the Plunkett Foundation to support woodland social enterprise schemes.

The Plunkett Foundation helps communities to take control of their challenges and overcome them together.

It supports people, predominantly in rural areas, to set up and run life-changing community co-operatives; enterprises that are owned and run democratically by large numbers of people in their community.

These help people to tackle a range of issues, from isolation and loneliness to poverty, and come in many forms including:

o Shops,
o Cafes,
o Pubs,
o Land-based initiatives,
o and everything in between.

The Making Local Woods Work scheme will be used to support enterprises in unmanaged woodland that could grow into sustainable businesses,

The Big Lottery Fund says the scheme will provide training, volunteering and employment opportunities to 500 people and will support, advise and train 50 groups in the UK to establish woodland social enterprises.

Figures from the Forestry Commission showed that 47 per cent of woodland is unmanaged or under-managed, which could threaten the variety of plant and animal life.

Better management could help preserve and increase the biodiversity of these areas and increase wood fuel production.

BIG cites the examples of

o Hill Holt Wood in Lincolnshire, which provides training for young people who have been excluded from school or are unemployed, and
o The Blarbuie Woodland Enterprise in Argyll, which has provided the residents of an adjacent long-stay hospital with access to activities including arts and crafts, wildlife walks and training and employment opportunities.

Funding for Making Local Woods Work, which will be run in conjunction with partners including the Woodland Trust and the Forestry Commission, has come as the result of an application made by the Plunkett Foundation under BIG's single awards scheme, which has since been discontinued, a BLF spokeswoman said.

Peter Ainsworth, chair of the BLF, said: "There aren’t many woodland social enterprises around yet, but where they do exist they have a great record of promoting skills and employability. It’s exciting to be able to support this initiative, which aims to improve the quality of life of those directly involved and also make woodlands more accessible and better looked after for the benefit of all."

For further information, go to the Big Lottery Fund website.

For details about the work of the Plunkett Foundation, follow thisLINK.  

(Source: GRIN)

Powys Groups People & Places Success

Two Powys groups are celebrating the news that they have been awarded Big Lottery People & Places Funding.

Machynlleth, Community Action Machynlleth and District are awarded £71,916 to expand a drop-in facility for people experiencing mental health issues, and will enable them to benefit from a support network as well as therapy through activities.

The Bracken Trust, Llandrindod Wells have been awarded £214,218 to provide enhanced nursing care, complementary therapies and counselling support, expand its home visit service and introduce an out of hours service. The project will also promote cancer awareness through networking with local GPs, schools, hospices and focus on specific under-represented groups such as agricultural workers. The three year grant will be used for salaries, project delivery expenses including transport and overhead costs.

The People and Places programme awards grants of between £5,001 and £1 million for a broad range of community projects. For further information about the programme and how you can apply for funding, please visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/wales

Congratulations to them both.

(Source: BIG Lottery)

DOWAGER COUNTESS ELEANOR PEEL TRUST

The Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust has one of the more unusual Charity Commission entries we've come across so far. It states:

“The Trust deed provides that the income of the Trust Fund
should be paid or applied for such charitable purposes as the Trustees should think fit. The Trustees have particular regard for medical charities, charities for old people and those who have fallen on evil days through no fault of their own.”

The Trust's aim is to support projects in the following areas:

• Charities in connection with older people - old age, homes,
and carers.
• Charities for people fallen upon hard times - disabled, hospices, ex-services, natural or man-made disasters, mental health and homelessness.
• Medical care charities - care specifically aimed at benefiting older people, to include Alzheimer's, Macular Disease, Prostate Cancer, and Parkinson's Disease.

Grant awards during the financial year ending 5 April 2014 varied between £300 and £300,000. The vast majority of awards were under £10,000. During the financial year the Trust allocated £804,448 in grants, an increase from £641,674 the previous year.

Although there is no geographical limitation on applications, requests from charities in the preferred locations of Lancashire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside tend to receive priority over applications from other parts of the country.

The Trustees place a strong focus on small to medium-sized charities where grants will make a difference. Applications from large well-funded charities (with income in excess of £2.5 million per annum) will normally be rejected, unless the project is a capital project.

The Trustees’ preference is to support capital projects or project driven applications and not running costs or general operating expenses, although the Trustees are flexible to take account of the needs of smaller charities which operate in the Trust's preferred locations.

For charities in this category consideration will be given to supporting revenue projects and running costs in addition to capital projects.

Registered charities in the United Kingdom are eligible to apply.

Application forms are available to complete online at the Trust's website.

The next application deadline is Wednesday 30 September 2015.

Contact details for the Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust are:

Sarah Keywood
The Dowager Countess Eleanor Peel Trust
Trowers & Hamlins LLP
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ
Email: secretary@peeltrust.com

(Source: GRIN)

PAUL HAMLYN FOUNDATION

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which closed to applications in October 2014, has reopened with a new strategy focusing on 6 new priorities relating to the changes it wishes to see in the UK.  The strategy will run from 2015 to 2021.

The Foundation's UK work will focus on achieving the following strategic priorities:

1. Supporting imaginative people to nurture exciting ideas.
2. Widening access and participation in the arts.
3. Improving people's education and learning through the arts.
4. Showing that the arts make a difference to people's lives.
5. Supporting the development and growth of organisations investing in young people and positive change.
6. Improving support for young people who migrate, and strengthen integration so that communities can live well together.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation is one of the UK's largest independent grants- makers, allocating around £20 million in grants annually.

The Foundation has designed some new funds to support its new priorities and plans to give £25 million in grants (an increase of £5 million) each year to not-for-profit organisations in the UK working toward these new priorities.

Some of the funds have just opened to applications and others will open in the autumn. It is also continuing with many of its existing programmes.

The following new funds are now open:

o Shared Ground Fund offers grants for not-for-profit organisations to test new approaches and explore ways of addressing new migration challenges. There are two different grants: Explore and Test grants, which is open now; More and Better Grants, which will open in the Autumn.

o Youth Fund offers core-cost support (grants of between £10,000 and £60,000 for up to two years) to developing not-for-profit organisations working to enable young people to reach their full potential. It is particularly interested in young people aged 14-25 who are in precarious positions and struggling to make critical life transitions because of disadvantage and lack of resources, social exclusion and stigma. Applications may be made at any time.

o Access and Participation Fund provides grants for not-for-profit organisations to widen access to and deepen participation in the arts. There are two different grants: the Test Fund and the Development Fund.

o Ideas and Pioneers Fund is for individuals and teams, including those working within small organisations, which have ideas for improving the life changes and opportunities of individuals and communities.

o Arts-based Learning Fund is for arts organisations (charities, community organisations, social enterprises and not-for-profit companies active in the arts) working with schools, further education colleges and teachers. Applications can be made at any time with three application deadlines each year at the beginning of November, March and June.

o The Teacher Development Fund (expected to open in the Autumn) aims to help teachers develop their skills to deliver arts in schools.

Full details can be found on the Paul Hamlyn Foundation's new website.  

(Source: GRIN)

STOP PRESS! COMMUNITY FACILITIES PROGRAMME INFORMATION SESSION

THURSDAY 9^TH JULY 2015 10.30AM

LADYWELL HOUSE

NEWTOWN

The session will take about an hour with a short presentation about the Community Facilities Programme and an opportunity to ask questions.

This capital grant fund aims to develop and improve facilities for communities in order to tackle poverty and its effects.  The programme is community based and is open to community and voluntary sector organisations, including social enterprises. 

We are looking for projects that increase opportunity and tackle poverty within their community.

We want applications that are community led and developed in partnership with community, public and private sector partners. The co-location of organisations providing services such as credit union access, local health services, post office services, youth services, sports facilities, library services, etc. is encouraged.

Potential applicants will be expected to work with local authorities and Community Voluntary Councils as well as the local community in order to develop applications.

Up to £500,000 is available for facilities.

More information about the grant can be found here:

http://gov.wales/topics/people-and-communities/communities/grants/community-facilities-programme/?lang=en

To book a place please contact: communityfacilitiesproghelp@wales.gsi.gov.uk

£11m boost to social enterprises in Wales

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-33201222

(Source: BBC)

ENERGY ADVICE GRANTS PROGRAAME

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is inviting Third Sector organisations in the UK to apply to its £1 million energy advice grants programme.

Now in its third year, the Big Energy Saving Network (BESN) is a £1 million programme of training, support and grant funding for legally constituted Third Sector organisations and community groups able to deliver an extensive programme of outreach to vulnerable consumers. Activities should be focused on helping clients reduce their energy costs through assisted action on tariffs, switching and the take up of energy efficiency offers.

The programme's primary objectives are to:

• Provide assisted action for the maximum number of vulnerable consumers possible with the funding available, helping them save money on their energy costs through attendance at BESN Champion and/or Volunteer led outreach sessions.
• Deliver a training programme to frontline workers who come into regular contact with vulnerable consumers, in order that they can give direct help and advice to clients to help them save money on their energy costs where practical.

The programme of outreach will be led by 170 specially trained Network Champions that will co-ordinate the training of further volunteers and frontline workers.

These volunteers and frontline workers will in turn deliver proactive advice to consumers on energy issues via an assisted action approach.

Each grant award is for a total of £5,000 per 'Champion', which is made up of an initial £4,000 grant to be followed by a further payment of up to £1,000 if the agreed objectives of the grant are met in full.

The funding can be used for:

o Staff costs,
o Venue hire,
o Publicity,
o Printing,
o IT,
o Translation costs,
o Travel and
o Other associated expenses to run events and/or make home visits.

The outreach programme will run through autumn/winter 2015/16, with outreach activity concluding on 21 March 2016.

The deadline for applications is 10pm on Friday 17 July 2015.

Full details can be found on the GOV.UK website.

(Source: GRIN)