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Last updated: 28 April 2009
28 April 2009
Essex County Council (ECC) is setting up a ground-breaking £2 million endowed fund to support local charities in Essex. It is thought that Essex County Council is the first local authority in the country to secure a portion of the Government’s Local Area Agreement (LAA) funding to specifically resource a healthy and thriving voluntary and community sector.
Under the banner of a Thriving Third Sector, the LAA-endowed fund will be managed by local grant-making trust, Essex Community Foundation, who will work with a panel of representatives from local charities and the LAA Management Partnership Board to identify priorities for funding. The Fund will provide grants to any charity based in Essex that is delivering a service to the most disadvantaged people in the county.
Lord Hanningfield, Leader of Essex County Council and Chair of the LAA Essex Management Board said:
“We are delighted that our local voluntary sector is the first to benefit from funding that the Government is releasing as a Performance Reward Grant to Essex for achieving objectives aimed at improving the quality of life for local people. This fund recognises the immense contribution of the sector to community well-being and will provide a stable source of funding to support local charities, in perpetuity”.
Laura Warren, Chief Executive of Essex Community Foundation added:
“This endowed fund will allow us to look at the most effective ways of sustaining local organisations to tackle social and economic disadvantage. We applaud the decision of Essex County Council and the LAA Essex Management Board in taking such a long term view, giving the opportunity for this fund to make a significant contribution to the development of a healthy and thriving third sector”
One of the key features of the fund will be that the third sector will need to decide what the issues are that need to be addressed. Applications for grants will be invited in the autumn when the Panel will announce more detailed criteria.
It is thought that Essex County Council is the first local authority in the country to secure a portion of the Government’s Local Area Agreement (LAA) funding to specifically resource a healthy and thriving voluntary and community sector. If you know of similar schemes elsewhere in the country please contact us.
Information about how this fund was developed will be available on the Community Foundations Network website. For more information about the fund in Essex please go to Essex Community Foundation’s website.