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Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Support

Excellence in Education
The King's Arms Project

Alternative forms of support

 

Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Support

Charities in Bedford and North Bedfordshire found out how they could benefit from a new funding scheme aimed at voluntary groups in the Borough when the Bedford Charity launched its Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Support programme on Friday 23 June.

More than 20 local organisations attended an event at the North Bedfordshire Council for Voluntary Service to learn about the fund, which will invest an extra £100,000 per year in the local voluntary sector. It’s the second in a series of themed programmes which the Bedford Charity is launching over the next five years, which will see the Charity's grantmaking budget more than triple.

The new fund aims to strengthen the voluntary and community sector in Bedford and North Bedfordshire and enable it to deliver quality and sustainable services with efficiency and minimal duplication. It is expected that the majority of our grants under this programme will be made either to groups of organisations working together or to second tier organisations (those which have other organisations as their members such as the CVS or BRCC).

Excellence in Education

We are delighted to announce the first award from a new strategic initiative in the Charity's grant making; "Excellence in Education". This themed programme will release an extra £100,000 per annum for the benefit of education projects in the Borough of Bedford.

The first grant has been made to Bedfordshire County Council’s Education Psychology Service (EPS), to enable them to work with Dr Jonathan Solity of Warwick University on the development of an Early Numeracy Research Project. A grant of £120,000 will enable the EPS to build on the initial findings of a preliminary project which will expand to focus on models of support for lower achieving children between Yr 1 and

YR 3.

The new programme aims to embrace education in all its forms including education pre 4 and post 18, informal learning, education outside of academic environments, non-certificated learning, and education across a broad spectrum of subjects.

Specific critieria have been developed to aid the assessment of applications by an Advisory Group of ecucational experts. Succesful projects will either replicate in Bedford an innovative idea which has been proven elsewhere or will be new work by organisations with a strong track record.The Advisory Group will favour projects that impact on local or national education policy or practice.  Applicants should provide a strong evidence base for their proposals and they will be expected to be working towards measurable educational outcomes.

The King's Arms Project

Finding a Bed in Bedford: A Report on Housing Provision for Ex-offenders by Amy Delamaide, King's Arms Project

The King's Arms Project supports rough sleepers from the street into sustained independent living. They aim to see the homeless break away from life on the streets and to be a part of the process which assists people into more permanent accommodation. King’s Arms are currently in receipt of a significant three year award of £45,000 from the Harpur Trust.

In October 2005 The King’s Arms Project were awarded a further grant of £4,000 to fund a feasibility study to investigate and research the housing needs of ex-offenders in Bedford.

This research sought to identify potential gaps between current provision and need for accommodation, as well as the gaps created when organisations fail to coordinate well. In addition to gaps, this report also identifies many barriers to accommodation which prevent offenders from accessing the housing that is available to them. Some attempts have been made to overcome these barriers, but additional work is needed.

The report recommends increasing the social housing and supported accommodation available for offenders and increasing the provision of floating support and resettlement workers to assist offenders through the accommodation maze. It also suggests how the agencies supporting ex-offenders and providing accommodation in Bedford could improve their coordination and cooperation.

Community grants programme: alternative forms of support

Many people assume that funders like the Bedford Charity have just one method of supporting good causes; a simple grant handed over to the applicants to enable them to deliver a particular project. However, leading grant-makers in the UK are exploring demand for a variety of packages of financial support, including interest free and low interest loans.

The Bedford Charity is no exception, so when the Friends of the Child Development Centre asked us to underwrite a shortfall on phase four of their extension, the Trustees saw the opportunity to test this idea in Bedford.

The Charity had made an initial grant of £400,000 in 2001 and assisted the staff to set up a separate charity, the Friends of the CDC, to raise the remainder of the £1.2million required. However builders were ready to begin  work in 2003 before the funds were raised for the final phase of the project.  This final phase could not be undertaken without a firm guarantee of the bill being paid. The Bedford Charity strongly supported the desire to get the building work started quickly and all phases undertaken at once, rather than having to re-start work sometime later at greater cost. Consequently, the Charity agreed to underwrite the cost of the final phase work, offering the Friends a guaranteed loan facility of up to £85,000. The Friends agreed to continue to fund raise and pay back the loan when and if it raised the funds.

In fact,  successful fundraising by the Friends and delays in bills being presented meant that the loan was never drawn; merely the guarantee was sufficient to achieve success.

This type of flexible support benefits fundraisers by granting them breathing space whilst they pursue other funding opportunities or grow their organisations.

Jackie Atkinson, Chair and Trustee of the Friends of the CDC says: "We would like to thank the Bedford Charity for so generously underwriting £85,000 of the amount we needed to raise - this has provided a very welcome safety net for us, especially when very large invoices started to appear!"