|
Community Grants
in the South East
The
ESF Community Grants Programme in the South East is
managed by a partnership of five Rural Community
Councils. The Project is led by Surrey Community
Action and the partners are the Community Council
for Berkshire (for the Thames Valley), Community
Action Hampshire (for Hampshire, Isle of Wight,
Portsmouth and Southampton), Action with Communities
in Rural Kent (for Kent and Medway), Action in rural
Sussex (for East and West Sussex, Brighton & Hove).
All of the partners were experienced in managing
grant programmes including Global Grants.
STRATEGY
The
project did not start until October 2008 due to
delays in the tendering and awarding processes. The
original plan had been to hold the first
distribution round in November (with 4 subsequent
rounds in 2009 and 2010).
Faced
with the choice of achieving the first round by the
end of 2008 or putting in place all the processes
and procedures beforehand and delaying the first
round until early 2009, both Surrey CA and the LSC
agreed that the former should have priority and the
first rounds took place in the week of December 15th.
It was accepted that the processes would have to be
developed in stages, e.g., application procedure
would be put in place immediately but monitoring
delayed until after the contracts had been awarded.
It was anticipated that because of the limited
application period the first round would not be
heavily subscribed and could be used as a pilot to
test and further develop the procedures for the
second round in May 2009.
PREPARATORY ACTIVITIES
The
immediate priority was to promote and raise
awareness of the Grants across the region. A
leaflet/flier and poster were designed and produced
and distributed widely by the partner organisations
who also used their websites, newsletters and other
routes to publicise the Grants, as detailed below.
Emails played a vital role because of the very tight
timescale.
Hampshire
Community Action Hampshire adopted a 3 point
marketing campaign for Community Grants:
1. Including copy within ‘CAH News’, the magazine
for voluntary & community members, with a
circulation of approx 1100
2. Targeted emails to approximately 1,300
organisations.
3. Using the network of 14 CVS (Councils for
Voluntary Service) for dissemination to their
members.
Kent
Dissemination via the CVS network
Press
releases and local radio interviews
Leaflets included in Rural News to over 300 parishes
Surrey
Dissemination via the 11 CVS’s and similar
organisations
Emails
and electronic leaflet sent to 1,600 voluntary
organisations across the county
Sussex
Copy
with the October newsletter
Leaflet sent electronically to Sussex VCS Learning
Consortium and key organisations in East and West
Sussex and Brighton and Hove
Display at Action in Rural Sussex AGM and Conference
Leaflets distributed at training courses and funding
fairs
Thames Valley
CAWB
e-shot news bulletin – Berkshire-wide
PCDL
networks
Partner newsletters
Dissemination via websites and newsletters of RCC’s
in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and other contact
networks across the area
Key
activities prior to the first distribution round
also included producing guidelines for applicants
and application forms, appointment of Grant Panels
in each of the five areas, agreeing the Panel Terms
of reference, ensuring the Panels were fully aware
of all the criteria and agreeing the Panel procedure
and administration. The most important objective was
to ensure that Panels were consistent in the
criteria they used and their decision making. The
tight timescale resulted in applicants only have two
weeks to complete their applications in and there
was concern that application numbers would be low.
FIRST ROUND OUTCOMES
This
concern quickly proved completely unfounded. A total
of 136 applications were received for over half of
the total project funding of £2.5M. Whilst this was
a very gratifying response and proved the
effectiveness of the promotion, it brought
unexpected pressure on an untested process. The
money available for this round was doubled to
£400,000 but Grant Panels had to be extremely
selective as they could only fund a proportion of
the applications. It also made it more difficult to
use this round for learning purposes. The Panels
generally took a cautious approach and were careful
to ensure that all grants awarded were well within
the guidelines. They awarded grants to 37 applicants
for a total of £355,000.
REFLECTION
Despite the very short timetable, the project has
achieved a very successful start. The promotion
campaign, establishment of working relations between
the partners and the Panel processes are particular
success stories. The project is now moving into its
second phase with successful applicants, i.e.,
contracting and then monitoring. A number of useful
lessons have been learnt from this first round which
will be built into the second round and will make
the application process easier for applicants and
more efficient for the project managers.
|
