[cma-l] Empowering Local Communities - new fund

[Jaqui Devereux]

Dear all

The CMA will definitely be putting in an application to the newly 
launched Empowerment Fund as described below.

We would like to know your views on what you would want us to achieve 
should our bid be successful, to inform how we construct the bid, also 
if you have any capacity to act as a steer for us on this (e.g. virtual 
Steering Group?)

Please let me know as soon as possible,

Best wishes

Jaqui

Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association

=

Empowering Local Communities

Third sector groups from across England are invited to bid for a share
of £7.5 million to help give local people real power and influence in
their communities.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has launched the long-awaited
Empowerment Fund, which over the next three years will provide between
20-25 nationally significant charities, voluntary organisations and
social enterprises with grants to empower local communities.

Funding is available in two tiers, either £500,000 or £200,000, spread
over the 2009-12 period.

Interested organisations must be operating on a national scale
throughout England and should be active in one or more of the
following key areas:

     * Community Voices and Leadership.
     * Community Development.
     * Community and Social Media.
     * Community involvement in Planning.
     * Improving communication between citizens and councillors.
     * Social Enterprises and Social Entrepreneurship.
     * Helping small organisations to work together.

Priority will be given to organisations looking to empower
disadvantaged and excluded communities.

Inviting third sector groups to bid for funding before the 6 January
deadline, Ms Blears said:

"Charitable and voluntary services are some of the best promoters of
community empowerment, offering people real opportunities for local
involvement and finding new and innovative ways of way of giving
people a voice, a say, and a stake in the choices that make a
difference to their lives.

"The three-year Empowerment Fund is about acknowledging that key role
and giving the support these organisations need to continue to
strengthening and empowering their local communities however they see
fit, from community involvement in planning and community leadership,
to social enterprise and entrepreneurship."

First revealed in July, fears have been raised from some within the
third sector that the fund would sideline smaller charities, with the
Urban Forum and CDX worried that focusing the scheme on a small number
of national organisations would exclude some smaller groups that have
the potential to make a valuable impact.

For more information about the Empowerment Fund and to download the
scheme documentation, visit:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/empowermentfundprospectus

-- 
Jaqui Devereux

Director
Community Media Association

15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield
S1 2BX

+44 114 279 5219


Join the CMA now for discounts, networking,
workshops, streaming, information, support
and a voice for community media

www.commedia.org.uk

Access to the media for people and communities