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Local community buildings will be transformed through Government grants worth £2.27 million

CAB 004-10
21 January 2010

Today 96 charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises will receive over £2.27 million in grants to improve vital facilities they provide for their communities.

The grants, worth up to £30,000 each, are part of the Capital Investment Programme delivered by Capacitybuilders. They support small scale improvements to resource centres that can make a big difference for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises whose services are suffering in tough economic times.

These small scale changes can provide vital improvements to the quality and accessibility of accommodation or facilities provided by organisations. For example enabling them to add additional meeting rooms, improve technology, or provide better access to resources such as a common library.

Last year nearly £1.4million was awarded in the first round of grants under the programme, allowing over 61 local resource centres to make improvements to their premises.

Minister for the Third Sector, Angela Smith said:

“I am pleased to announce today that we are awarding over £2.27 million of grants to transform local resource centres.

“Small organisations can really benefit by not only improving the accessibility or quality of their accommodation, but by pooling their resources and sharing facilities they can also reduce their overheads and concentrate their resources on delivering the services that people and communities desperately need.”

Charles Rapson, Operations & Enterprise Manager at Solihull SUSTAiN and Colebridge Trust said:

"This funding will enable us to purchase a new Community Bus which will provide a very welcome resource to the 600 or so Third Sector organisations working in Solihull by providing a resource that will help them take services to the people of Solihull.

"Solihull is a town with big geographical divides covering an area that’s larger than nearby Birmingham. Having a new mobile facility gives organisations a unique opportunity to deliver and promote their services, recruit volunteers, raise funds and a whole lot more. The Bus will also provide an ideal way of engaging young people and getting them involved in SUSTAiN’s ambitious £8.5 million Youth Centre."

Overall the Capital Investment Programme is worth up to £7million. The programme is broken into three streams which mean that a wide range of frontline organisations across England will have better access to high quality and affordable shared facilities and shared services within their local area.

The Capital Investment Programme is additional to the £42.5 million package of measures announced in the Government’s Real Help for Communities Action Plan in February 09.

Notes to editors

Funding for the Capital Investment Programme comes from the Office of the Third Sector in Cabinet Office. The Programme is delivered by Capacitybuilders, which is a Non-Departmental Public Body that works to improve the support that is available to third sector organisations.

First three phases of investment

Strand A: Under strand A of the programme grants of up to 30,000 were available to functioning resource centres across England to support smaller-scale developments, such as improvements to the availability, accessibility or quality of accommodation, or shared facilities such as additional meeting rooms, office or storage space, better ICT, or access to resources such as a common library. Strand A has already provided 61 grants worth £1.4m. This is the second round of awards under Strand A.

Strand B: Under strand B of the programme larger grants of up to £200,000 were awarded to charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises for significant refurbishment (£50,000 - £200,000). £1.2m worth of grants have been made.

Strand C: Grants of up to £500,000 were available to large-scale flagship projects. For example to fund extensive renovation to resource centres that will provide accommodation to other third sector organisations . Grants awards for this strand will be made shortly.

Funding broken down by region

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