Welcome P1-2 ISSUE NO. 52 Co-Financing February/March 2005 Regional Roundup P3-5 LSC Lancashire Third Tendering Round P6-8 BME Training Event P9 SAM Volunteer Management P10 Merkury Prize P11-12 Partnership Search P13-15 Other European Funding P16-24 Non European Funding P25-27 Consultations P28-30 Training & Events P31-35 Publications P36-37 WELCOME Welcome to Issue 52 of the North West Network Newsletter. In this edition, you will find the very latest Co-financing updates from across the region in addition to a dedicated article on the recent launch of LSC Lancashire‘s third tendering round and subsequent publication of their Prospectus. The deadline for completed project submissions is 6 April. The European Team recently delivered a series of Introduction to European Funding seminars targeted at supporting the black and minority ethnic community. The seminars were well received and have helped to raise awareness of the funding streams available. An overview can be found on page 9. If you’re thinking of working transnationally, the Partnership Search page may be of interest to readers as it features the latest requests for project partners. In addition, the Merkury Foundation in Poland is seeking partners for an Equal Initiative project, find out more on page 11. As is usual, the Newsletter begins with a North West Network staff profile, kindly contributed in this edition by John Hacking, Senior European Funding Officer. STAFF MEMBER PROFILE John Hacking Senior European Funding Officer I was born in Nelson in Lancashire in the 1960’s (well 1960 to be precise so now you know how old I am). I had a passion in my younger years for Burnley FC which was transplanted in later life by an equal passion for Manchester City as a consequence of a move to Manchester in 1978 to attend Manchester University. You will see already from my choice of football teams that I possess an unerring ability to back a winner. After University I dabbled with teaching for a short while but then got involved with social and economic projects in Moss Side, where I lived, and gradually began to get more and more involved in regeneration projects and community development. In 1989 I was one of the founders of Firmstart which is still a social enterprise in Manchester providing workspace to local businesses. Firmstart played a major part in the regeneration of the Hulme district of Manchester and it was here that I learned many of the lessons about involving communities which I still try to practise today. 1 Through the 1980s and 90s I worked with lots of organisations on social and economic projects and gained a lot of experience (and friends) in the process. Of all the organisations, I would like to single out Emerge Recycling. I was on the Board of Emerge for 3 years and in that time I saw it grow from a fairly small organisation to a social enterprise employing over 40 people. In my view Emerge embodied everything that is good about the voluntary sector, flexible, innovative full of committed creative people and with a really progressive social ethos. I lived in Moss Side for 14 years though I moved to Chorlton in 1997. Since moving there I have become involved with a few local community organisations which takes what little time I have left after work. I am particularly involved with Chorlton Arts Festival as a fundraiser and I also chair the Chorlton Health Forum which helps to involve residents in health structures which affect them. I also enjoy being a governor at a local primary school as I learn so much from the staff and pupils. I joined North West Network in September 2004 as Senior European Funding Officer. I am relishing the prospect of working across the region with such a wide variety of groups and individuals. There are many challenges facing the voluntary sector but also plenty of opportunities. I look forward to working with you all to rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities. 2 CO-FINANCING REGIONAL ROUNDUP LSC Cumbria Learning and Skills Council Cumbria recently held their fifth bidding round for their Funding Gateway Prospectus for discretionary funds 2004 to 2006. The deadline for this round was the 21 January 2005. The results of this bidding round have not become available yet. LSC Cheshire and Warrington Learning and Skills Council Cheshire and Warrington recently held their fourth Tendering Round for Development Funding. The deadline for the receipt of applications under this Round was 12 pm, 1 October 2004. 16 bids were received across all sectors, requesting a total of £2,735,171 funding. One application was received from the voluntary and community sector requesting a total of £98,280. Across all sectors 3 bids were funded securing a total of £1,158,105. No voluntary and community sector applications were successful. The results of the bidding round will shortly become available on their website at www.lscdf.co.uk/ITTs.html LSC Lancashire Learning and Skills Council Lancashire have launched their third Tendering Round for their 2004-2006 Co-financing Prospectus. Their draft Prospectus was put on their website on January 18 for consultation. The Round was formally launched on 21 February 2005 and is purely focusing on the Tender Specifications that the LSC was unable to allocate funding against through Round 2. For further information please read the LSC Lancashire Third Tendering Round article in this Newsletter. LSC Greater Manchester LSC Learning and Skills Council Greater Manchester held their third Tendering Round for their 2004-2006 Co-Financing Prospectus in September 2004. 35 applications were received across all sectors, requesting a total of £5,065,861.60. 15 applications were from the voluntary and community sector requesting £1,887,025.60. LSC Greater Manchester operates a Two Stages application process. 11 projects were approved to progress to Stage Two of the process, and 11 Stage Two Tender Forms were submitted. 1 failed to meet the basic submission requirements and did not progress to appraisal. 10 Tenders were passed to the Panel for consideration. 9 were approved for ESF funding. In summary, 34 tenders were received at Stage One, 15 from the voluntary and community sector. Across all sectors £5,065,861 of ESF was requested, £1,887,025 of which was requested by the voluntary and community sector. Across all sectors 9 bids were funded and secured £1,772,323 of which one was from the voluntary and community sector and secured £76,300. 3 The results for the third Stage application process can be found by going to www.lsc.gov.uk/grmanchester/ and then click on ESF Co-Financing Programme 2004-2006 third Prospectus. This can be found under the Related Information section on the home page. All the documents relating to the third Prospectus can be found in this section. LSC Greater Merseyside Learning and Skills Council Greater Merseyside held a bidding round for their Objective 3 Co-financing Plan in October 2004. The deadline for tenders was 22 November 2004. Tenders were invited for programmes to encourage progression to Higher Education in Halton. All applicants will have been informed of the final outcome of the tenders by 31 January 2005. Further information on LSC Greater Merseyside is available on their website, www.lsc.gov.uk/merseyside/Documents/default.htm Job Centre Plus (JC+) Job Centre Plus North West has commenced a second Co-financing Tendering Round, and are currently in the middle of the first phase of the consultation process. Key stages within the consultation timetable are: • Launch of Consultation process (phase 1) From 17 Jan 2005 to 17 March 2005 (9 weeks) • 6 x Sub Regional Consultation Events Between 7 Feb 2005 and 16 Feb 2005 • Publication of draft Prospectus 21 March 2005 • Further Consultation (phase 2) From 21 March 2005 to 15 April 2005 (4 weeks) • Launch of the Tendering Round 25 April 2005 Job Centre Plus North West will once again be inviting tenders against the following ESF Measures. Measure 1.1 Provide advice and guidance to enable people to develop active and continuous job search strategies and prevent them from moving into long-term unemployment. Measure 1.2 Improve the employability of the unemployed, returners and young people of working age through targeted intervention to enhance vocational and other key skills and removing external barriers to labour market entry. 4 Measure 2.2 Provide help to improve the employability of, and remove barriers to labour market entry for, those groups disadvantaged in the labour market, and develop local responses to assist individuals with multiple disadvantages in the labour market that face the risk of social exclusion. Measure 4.3 To encourage entrepreneurship of individuals and competitive needs of business, particularly SMEs. Available funds for this round which were under committed from round one are listed below. Sub- Measure Measure Measure Measure Total Region 1.1 1.2 2.2 4.3 Cheshire 53,531 33,186 35,226 150,644 £272,587 Cumbria 10,000 97,405 211,334 75,000 £393,739 Gtr. Man 145,506 205,099 8,366 48,601 £407,572 Lancs NIL 2,036,696 101,190 34,316 £2,172,202 Total £209,037 £2,372,386 £356,116 £308,561 £3,246,100 Please note that North West Network will be holding training events for the Job Centre Plus second Bidding Round well in advance for submission for tenders for interested organisations in the sub-regions. Please keep referring to North West Network’s website as it is continuously updated with new calls for Tenders as well as dates and information for future training events.