LLAL Community Fund 33 Summary & Feedback About the Work of BLCF 45
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LLAL COMMUNITY FUND ANNUAL REVIEW 2019 JULY 2019 1 Contents Introduction 2 Key projects 4 Grants Awarded by fund (including data breakdown): LLAL Near Neighbours 10 Luton Youth Fund 19 LLAL Match funding programmes- #iwill 24 LLAL Match funding programmes- Mark West Fund 28 LLAL Community Fund 33 Summary & Feedback about the work of BLCF 45 2 Introduction This report is compiled for the LLAL board to provide details of the grants awarded over the last financial year 1st April 2018 to 31st March 2019. We would also like to take this opportunity to update you as to the work of our Foundation, which has seen a busy year with some major changes including welcoming Professor Gurch Randhawa as our new Chair of Trustees and relocating to new offices in Luton. As the Foundation team has expanded, the staff at BLCF have been able to provide increasing amounts of support and advice to groups, strengthening and developing them for the future. Key impact and achievements over the last year include: • Working much more closely with the local health authorities – joining the Health Transformation Board and the BLMK Building Healthier Partnerships Steering group. • Our CEO being appointed as a Commissioner for the Luton Inclusive Growth Commission, the report to be launched soon. In addition, she graduated with a distinction for her Masters in Grantmaking, Philanthropy and Social Investment and completed a dissertation on addressing inequality. • Instigating the first pan-Bedfordshire Funders day with 12 national foundations coming to the county, to learn about the issues facing the area and to encourage collective funding • Receiving high profile national coverage for the innovative and collaborative projects we have instigated and demonstrating our approach through national conferences and media including the Mayor of London Civil Society Conference, ACEVO annual conference, the Open University webinars and New Philanthropy Capital podcasts. • Continuing to strengthen our grant making systems and make more effective and efficient • Additional panel members being recruited, with relevant skills and experience together with volunteer grant assessors recruited and trained to a high standard • Developing the Small Charities Forum programme for the year and securing training and venues around the county for local grassroots organisations to network and connect. • Launching the Elevate programme to develop the capacity of charities, working with the Cranfield Trust to fund specific development work The Foundation has seen real change in the last year, where it continues to grow and be increasingly involved in supporting voluntary organisations and other local partners. We have also developed to take on much more of a community leadership role to build community assets and advocate for grassroots groups. With national recognition for our work together with a dynamic new Chair with a strong vision and clear commitment to communities, we look forward to continuing to work with LLAL on strengthening communities in Luton. We look forward to receiving any questions or comments. Francesca Johnstone Head of Grantmaking 3 Selection of highlights during 2018/19 High Sheriff Awards Small Charities Forum Events Evolve Launch 4 Elevate Programme Launch Event Funders Tour of Bedfordshire Mayor of London Civil Society Conference Inclusive Growth Commission First Community Foundation CEO to be profiled in the National Charity Times 5 KEY PROJECTS 1. SMALL CHARITIES FORUM The Small Charities Forum was established to help small grassroots groups build partnerships, network and enable peer support, as well as giving access to free training and workshops. The forum is part of our developing Grants+ work which we launched at the end of 2017. One of the main aims of the forum is also to help upskill and develop organisations and their team, who may have limited access to training and funds, to ensure future sustainability. The forum is specifically targeted to those groups with an income of under £500,000. We continue to see a good mixture of organisations attending, although as the workshop/masterclasses become more focussed the number of groups attending may fluctuate to allow for more specialist and one to one/small group support. We have 4 dates scheduled to take place during 2019, with the most recent in May 2019 focussing around monitoring, evaluation and impact. We were very pleased to have gained support from an extremely experienced professional to deliver this session, who is also a tutor for the Open University. Our third session is planned to take place in September in the South Beds area (Leighton Buzzard or Luton- venue tbc), with the support of a mentor and trainer from The Cranfield Trust. The topic for this session is around good financial management, which BLCF sees as a need for quite a number of groups. Imbedding good working practices in a group’s infancy is key to helping the grow and sustain in the long term. The Forums, whilst quite labour intensive for Foundation staff, have proved to be a success in the voluntary sector and we recently heard some good news about a new partnership that has been established with 2 groups that attended a previous forum. This would not have happened had they not attended and means they can provide and deliver a more meaningful service to the young people and unpaid carers they support. The Foundation continues to build relationships with the CVS, Community Action and VCS and representatives often attend the forums, to provide additional support to groups attending. 6 2. Evolve The Foundation launched one of the few targeted funds around the country, focussing on gender inequality. We were aware that women’s charities and services had been disproportionately affected by public sector funding cuts and we are determined to raise funds locally for these vital services. In October 2018, we hosted a launch for the Evolve network with Dame Stephanie Shirley which attracted key influential women from across the county, determined to build a local collective and collaborative movement to highlight issues of gender inequality and encourage female philanthropy. Since then, a steering group has been established and a 3-year fundraising strategy put in place. In June 2019, the first membership event was organised at Oakley House with an exclusive private viewing and auction. As a result of this, we have recruited a new steering group of key local women including: Sue Lousada DL Liz Searle (CEO Keech Hospice) Dr Lucie Shukur (Director of Youthscape Centre for Research) Caron Kendall (FSB) Kate Cherry (Athena Womens Network) Bina Briggs Jo Wareham (The Little Branding Company) In Autumn this year, we are aiming to hold an event for women’s charities in the county to attend together, to discuss collective funding and what their needs are. We have already commissioned Luton All Women’s centre to carry out a mapping exercise and we aim to use this as a basis for discussion of the local sector. As can be seen, there is a lot of momentum and progress in this development, which we will be happy to provide further updates about in the future. 3. DEVELOPMENT GRANTS 7 BLCF have been working with The Cranfield Trust to provide a programme that will support a number of voluntary organisations, based and operating in Central Beds or Luton, with a package of intensive management support to help them survive and become more sustainable in spite of the challenges of the current operating environment. The objective of the programme is to invest in local organisations and help them develop their own solutions to the obstacles affecting the voluntary sector. This programme will support forward thinking organisations to develop leadership, strengthen governance, improve sustainability and build a framework to enable confident future planning, all vital activities during a period of considerable uncertainty. To date 4 local charitable organisations have been selected to work with The Cranfield Trust and support has already begun with these groups. The groups selected are as follows: Sorted Counselling Service, Sight Concern Bedfordshire, Luton Irish Forum and Luton All Womens Centre. The support package will last over a period of 12 months and other similar programmes have run in the Bedford Borough area and have proved very successful and helped groups develop hugely. We hope to reflect this success in Central Beds and Luton also. We believe that providing this type of long term infrastructure support to organisations will help insure that they are able to diversify their income and increase their sustainability. 4. SURVIVING WINTER INITIATIVE BLCF launched its first Surviving Winter campaign and appeal in November 2018 to help support those most vulnerable living in fuel and food poverty in Bedfordshire. Working with a handful of key community partners, including, FACES, Bedford Foodbank, Age Concern and The Need Project we aimed to reach those most in need. Our partners identified individuals and families who were struggling to make ends meet, having to often make the decision over to whether to heat their homes or eat. Through this appeal we were able to raise a total of £10,000 which was kindly match funded by The Edward Gostling Foundation. Staff were pleased to gain support through various social media channels, press articles and other forms of publicity. The Foundation teamed up with the local Bedford Blues Rugby Club, for example, who attended a publicity shoot with us and our community partners. To date 214 people have received help through the appeal. Due to the unseasonably warm weather we have experienced during this period this has impacted the number of people that have been supported however. Through our work with local grassroot community groups and our identified community partners there was clear need and evidence to support families, couples and individuals experiencing hardship in the county. 8 What also became apparent was the amount of people experiencing poverty through changes to benefits (universal credits), this is further supported following research from the Trussell Trust and data around the increase use of foodbanks.