The New Year is about lists, resolutions and new beginnings.

We asked you to send in audio clips telling us your hopes, aspirations and predictions for the upcoming year.

Here’s a podcast giving a flavour of the submissions we received:

Listen to the podcast on SoundCloud

To listen to some of the submissions in full, click here

More than seventy partnerships of local support and development organisations across England have received grants to transform their services and provide high quality, joined up support to frontline charities.  These projects will also make it easier for organisations to forge better links with local businesses, develop stronger partnerships with local public sector bodies and for people to volunteer.

Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd said:

“This fund is not designed to support ‘business as usual’ – it’s about making things better for the frontline. It’s about supporting organisations with innovative business plans who want to play their part in modernising the landscape of local infrastructure.

“One of our main priorities is making it easier to run a charity.  We will ensure that we back the highest quality infrastructure support so that charities get guidance which is local, relevant and enables them to improve their service delivery.”

The projects funded by the Transforming Local Infrastructure Fund focus on bringing together different charity support providers to offer high quality local services at lower cost. There will also be new initiatives to make it easier for people to volunteer, help for social entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in their communities, support for charities to take over and run community assets, and initiatives to increase support, donations and gifts in kind from the private sector. 

The Transforming Local Infrastructure Fund is being managed by Big Fund, the non-lottery funding operation of the Big Lottery Fund.

Dharmendra Kanani, England Director for the Big Lottery Fund, said, “Transforming Local Infrastructure will provide strategic funding for organisations that support the voluntary and community sector in England.  As a result community organisations and groups will be able to respond more flexibly to an ever-changing funding environment, to plan for the future and become more effective.”

Big Lottery Fund is planning a distinct and additional investment in funding support services for voluntary organisations of at least £20 million.  Detailed proposals about their plans will be published during 2012.  It is planned that the majority of this investment will go to frontline voluntary organisations in order to give them greater choice and control over the support services which they need.

NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action) has offered to work with any area which has not been awarded a grant from the Transforming Local Infrastructure Fund to explore alternative approaches and sources of support for fulfilling the activities set out in their proposals.

View the list of Transforming Local Infrastructure awards

As Wales Committee Chair he will also sit on the UK Board of the Big Lottery Fund.

Previously Vice-Chancellor of Glamorgan University, Sir Adrian Webb has a wealth of experience in leading at executive management level in the public, not for profit and education sectors. He has been involved in many UK and Welsh Government initiatives, including chairing the independent review into further education in Wales (the Webb Review) and the Wales Employment and Skills Board. He was also a member of the Beecham Review of Public Services in Wales and part of the HM Treasury Public Service Productivity Panel.

In the interview below, Sir Adrian sets out his aspirations for the future.

Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud

View a transcript of the interview

Down Not Out is a Leicester-based community news agency, unique in being led by people with experience of being homeless. A joint project between Citizens’ Eye and Action Homeless, the news agency has been set up through a Big Lottery Fund Reaching Communities grant of £139,960 to bring vital volunteering, training and work opportunities to develop skills for independent living and break the cycle of repeat homelessness.

We spoke to Rob Parkinson, Chief Executive of Action Homeless, who told us how the project will work.

Through a range of media outlets in print, on line and in radio, Down Not Out will create a platform for homeless people to have a voice on issues that matter to them and the local community. John Coster, editor of Citizens Eye, gave us the background to the project and how it has evolved over time.

Giving homeless people in and around Leicester a voice and a platform to speak about the issues effecting them and influence change, is central to what the project wants to achieve. Maggs Scragg, an Action Homeless service user and a sub- editor at the agency, spoke to us about how she feels the project can bring about change.

View a transcript of these videos

For more information and how to get involved visit www.actionhomeless.org.uk/down-not-out

These projects will see, for the first time, some of the largest charities working alongside smaller community groups and local public services, from schools and GPs to volunteers and peers, to explore new ways of improving the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the UK.

On the day, Big Lottery Fund Chief Executive, Peter Wanless, hosted an event for representatives from the 17 partnerships to come together with other stakeholders and hear from two leading experts in the field of family and children’s services: Consultant and Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University, Naomi Eisenstadt and Chief Executive of 4Children, Anne Longfield.

Delegates also heard from two of the projects, Aberlour Child Care Trust and Sunderland Association Football Club Foundation, who gave an insight into their respective projects, as well as Ecorys, who will be leading a robust evaluation of the Improving Futures programme that will be a significant source of learning.

BIG chatted to Anne Longfield to hear about the social and economic importance of early intervention and the challenges of making an impact.

Derek Gray from Aberlour Child Care Trust talks to BIG about how the Dundee Early Intervention Teams hopes to help local families.

BIG talks to Ken Teears from Sunderland Association Football Club Foundation to hear how they plan to roll out their model across the city.

Nicola Smith from Ecorys tells BIG about the evaluation plans for the Improving Futures programme.

Yasmin Batliwala tells us about the work that is ahead of the BIG-funded Westminster Drug Project.

Presentation slides follow from the speakers who attended on the day:

The ‘Camden Futures partnership’ led by Elfrida Rathbone Camden is just one project that will help families who don’t know where to turn to for help with their problems.

Here BIG talks to ‘Fleur’ who has been involved with Elfrida Rathbone for the past three months, and Alexis Keir, Director of Elfrida Rathbone Camden.

For a transcript of this podcast click here

For more information on Improving Futures click here

The 93 grants of up to £10,000 come from BIG’s £50m Supporting Change & Impact initiative – launched last year in response to concerns from the VCS about the effects of the public funding cuts and the future sustainability of existing projects and services.

The money announced today will give existing BIG projects in the last 18 months of their funding some vital time to review the way they work and explore ways of becoming more sustainable. Activities include developing more effective operating models, partnership working, or finding new ways to deliver activities in future.

Further announcements will be made before the end of March including an additional year’s worth of funding for some projects that can show they are having particularly significant impact to continue their project and carry out plans to make their projects more sustainable in the long term.

Receiving funding today, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood will use £10,000 to research data taken from the increasing number of calls they receive and document their expertise and learning through a survivor’s manual for their beneficiaries.

Chief Executive Peter Saunders, said: “We have such a success story here. This £10,000 will enable us to promote and consolidate our work to share with others and look towards the future. We receive thousands of calls and the data we gather from them will provide the basis for a research project, which will prove an invaluable resource to attract further funding and raise awareness.”

Manchester Care and Repair, which supports older people, has lost vital match funding and will use the £10,000 to develop a new strategic direction and identify new ways of working.

Chief Executive Maggie Walker said: “This grant buys us some time and is a welcome boost in our struggle to find new funders and to help older people in a very deprived area. We are coming to the end of four years funding from BIG, which helped local people to develop skills to be ‘champions’, getting accurate information to local older people. We will use the supporting change funding to retain some aspects of the project while we keep working on proving its value to get continuing income.”

Through the Supporting Change & Impact scheme, BIG is also making a total of £6.5million available to four Big Lottery Fund Award Partners – organisations that distribute funding on behalf of BIG – to enable them to offer further support to their grant holders.

MIND, RSWT, Natural England and Groundwork, all Award Partners from BIG’s Changing Spaces programme, will receive funding.

The full impact on the VCS of cutbacks is still to come according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) which estimates that voluntary and community groups will face a reduction in public funding of over £900 million a year by 2016, losing a total of £2.8 billion in that period.

Nat Sloane, Chair of BIG’s England Committee, said: “The projects being funded today highlight the need for existing projects to be given the time and space to consider their future and how they need to adapt the way they are working to be more in tune with the fast changing environment. We have responded swiftly to the intelligence we have gathered to effectively get this funding to our projects when they need it most to help them make their projects future proof.”

We’re often out and about in the East of England but Friday 13^th brought a new kind of challenge as we opted to trial social reporting for the first time.

Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois had expressed concerns that organisations in his constituency weren’t being as successful as they might at accessing Lottery good causes cash. We decided that holding an free briefing event would give us an opportunity to show local people in South Essex that BIG is more than just a funder – we’re also keen to listen and learn, supporting people along the way.

We saw this as the perfect opportunity to reflect the work of the People Powered Change Working Group in England which has been busy exploring and recommending ways in which BIG can become more ‘social’ to realise the wider ambitions behind PPC and help projects and beneficiaries share their stories and build helpful networks.

So with no time to spare, we started planning for our event just before Christmas working  very closely with Rayleigh, Rochford and District Association of Voluntary Services and Basildon, Billericay and Wickford Council for Voluntary Services to make sure we invited the people who needed to be there.

Mark had also invited BIG Chief Peter Wanless and the other Lottery distributors Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England to come along and talk about funding opportunities from their own organisations.

So armed with my I-phone, video camera, tripod and laptop on a particularly cold, dark and frosty morning we pitched up at the office to make our way down the M11. Things got off to a bad start when I couldn’t remember how to drive an automatic …

Once we had set up the venue and made sure the IT was going to work, I was joined by my social reporting mentor for the day, David Wilcox. David has been working with BIG over the past few months on the social reporting site and he had kindly agreed to show me the ropes so, after a quick chat about who had the best equipment (definitely David) we got started.

With the help of the New Media team, we had set up a web page the day before with the intention of populating the space with photos, videos and presentations following the event. We were keen to ensure that people unable to attend could access all the support on offer.

Once we had tackled the rather large queue, our Sara (Betsworth) opened the event and reminded people about our social experiment. Together with my colleagues, Jamie Conway and Jonathan Clarke, we set about recording the opening speeches and started tweeting (using #wick112) to try and create a buzz. Here’s Jonathan and I hard at it…

Proceedings were kicked off by local MP Mark Francois who welcomed the opportunity for local people to hear from the Lottery distributors.

Watch Mark’s speech here

We halted proceedings there for a photo shoot with the local Basildon Echo: remind anyone of a recent and very public civil partnership?!

And then Peter took to the floor to bust a few myths about how and where Lottery money is distributed. Using examples such as BATIAS – a support project for people with learning disabilities in South Essex which was due to close its doors in January but has now had its future secured with a BIG grant of £296,000, Peter stressed how constituents of Rayleigh and Wickford benefit from awards made to organisations with main offices outside the constituency.

Watch Peter’s speech here

Our Ed then talked through what makes a good application and then it was all hands on deck as David and I set off to interview Mark and Peter. You can see the results here:

Watch Mark and Peter discussing their hopes for the future

Following coffee, the other funders set about explaining their own funding opportunities; the local CVSs outlined their support services and then it was off for lunch.

But not for me and David! Armed with the mike, we went forth into the crowd to talk to delegates about what the event meant to them. For intrepid reporter Catherine Kimberley, there was clearly no time to prepare the questions …

Watch Catherine’s efforts

Watching that back makes me a) cringe and b) realise how much I have to learn but there’s nothing like diving straight in. We’re in an amazing position to extend our reach beyond those who attend our events – we will of course have training needs and will need to keep experimenting with new media tools to increase our confidence, but there’s clearly an appetite for this to develop.

It was clear from our experiment that we need to make sure we build space into our events so that people can share their experiences, and provide us feedback so we can plan future outreach work.

Over the next few months, we’ll be following up with groups from the event to see how they want to communicate with us – whether they embrace the new media tools at their disposal, or want to stick to the traditional workshop format, we’ll be in a better position to support them.

Were we more social in Wickford?  Watch this space …

You can watch our other interviews from the day

Some 45 projects across the South West are sharing in £350k from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme.

Routeways Centre Limited receives £10,000 for the All Ways Apples project in Plymouth. The group will use the funding to provide a range of food and gardening activities and workshops for the whole community. This will enable both older and younger members of the community to engage in outdoor activities that will encourage greater community cohesion and guidance on a healthier lifestyle.

Andrew Turnock, Project Manager, said: “Based in Devonport, All Ways Apples celebrates natural abundance by increasing the local harvesting of apples in the city. Health promoting apple-related workshops will include growing and pruning skills for fruit trees in small gardens. A lively creative apple festival in the autumn will showcase the project.”

St Hilary School in Penzance, Cornwall, secures £4,290 to create a sensory, vegetable and wildlife garden for pupils and the wider community. This will improve the outdoor space so people can access the natural environment and learn about sustainable living.

InterClimate Network receives £5,000 to run an environment event for young people in Bristol. This will raise awareness about the planet and environment and highlight green issues. It will also help improve communication, leadership and presentation skills and highlight employment opportunities.

Other projects receiving funding today include Music in Hospitals, awarded £9,600 to provide 75 live music concerts for sick and disabled older people in care homes in the South West to help alleviate isolation, improve moods and people’s spirits, including those with dementia. And Dance in Devon Limited is awarded £9,800 to run an intergenerational dance-based programme in Princetown, including interactive workshops, accredited leadership training for young adults, and community presentations.

Mark Cotton, Big Lottery Fund’s Head of the South West region, said: “A host of juicy projects receive BIG funding today. Many of these are aimed at improving the health and well-being of people of all ages across the South West while encouraging people to enjoy the natural environment. A great start to the year.”

BIG’s Awards for All programme offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 to social and environmental projects that will benefit local communities and make a difference to the lives of those most in need. Voluntary and community groups, schools, health organisations and parish and town councils can all apply.

See a full list of awards announced in the South West today

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund

We’ve invited not-for-profit or community groups, schools, and parish/town councils to a free funding event in the Wickford Centre to make sure they know how to apply for Lottery funding.

And we’re delighted to be supported by local MP Mark Francois who is keen to see organisations based in his constituency of Rayleigh and Wickford access Lottery funding.

Our very own Peter Wanless will be addressing the audience to make sure they know all about the funding that’s available, how to make an application and where to go for further support and we’re covering all the options by inviting the other main Lottery distributors along to speak about funding available from their individual organisations.

Representatives from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England will all be joining us and the two local CCVS organisations – Rayleigh, Rochford and District Association of Voluntary Services (RRAVS) and Basildon, Billericay and Wickford Council for Voluntary Services (BBMCVS) will also be on hand to offer advice and support.

It’s going to be a busy day with over 120 organisations represented – we’ve had to close the doors to any other groups but will be making sure all the content of the day is available here. We’re also keen to continue conversations with interested groups, so please remember the Regional Team is here to help – contact us on 01223 449000.

We’ll also be tweeting from the event so follow us here: #wick112

Twitter (#wick112)