Lloyds to donate £1 million to credit unions

The announcement is part of the banking group's Helping Britain Prosper plan, in which it aims to address some of the big issues facing the country, including financial inclusion which includes providing access to affordable credit. Credit unions are non-profit-making cooperatives whose members can borrow money from pooled deposits at low interest rates. The Association of British Credit Unions said its latest figures showed there were 371 credit unions in England, Scotland and Wales, serving more than a million people. Lloyds said it had not yet been decided whether to give the £1m to Abcul for distribution or to individual credit unions.

(Source: WCVA)

Business Wales - How to Tender workshop

Sell2Wales and How to Tender for Third Sector Organisations

Media Resource Centre, Llandrindod Wells. LD1 6AH
Tuesday, 18 March 2014 – 10.00am – 4.30pm

Business Wales would like to invite you to attend two workshops we’re holding in Powys. The morning will be and interactive sell2wales workshop followed by a ‘How to Tender – An introduction’ workshop. Both workshops will be specifically tailored to the requirements of third sector organisations wishing to tender for work.

To book your place, please contact your regional event co-ordinator on 01970 636283 or e-mail eventsmid@businesswales.org.uk

POWYS VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR - NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN!!

SKYPE SESSION - THURSDAY 13TH FEBRUARY

Would you like to attend one of our outreach sessions, but find it hard to attend? PAVO is introducing regular Skype sessions, where you can take the opportunity to chat with a Development Officer about your queries.
The first session will take place on: 13th February 2013 - 11.00am - 2.00pm 
The Skype name to contact us upon is: pavo.development 

TRAINING - Planning and Writing Successful Funding Bids (Intermediate)

To be held at PAVO Offices, Llandrindod Wells

Wednesday 19 February 2014 (full day)

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• understand the current funding climate in Wales and its impact on funders
• review their current approach of developing a bid
• apply new tools and techniques to give their bids a winning 'edge'
• understand and meet the expectations of funders

To book click here

Community Facilities Programme – a grant scheme for community led capital improvement projects

The Minister for Communities and Tackling Poverty and the Deputy Minister for Tackling Poverty launched the Community Facilities Programme on 9 January 2014. The scheme will open for business on Monday 3 February 2014 and application forms will be available from this date.

Aims

The Community Facilities Programme is a capital grant fund which aims to develop and improve community facilities which in turn provide services that communities need in order to tackle poverty and its effects.

The Programme will be open to projects throughout Wales. Applications will need to demonstrate that the facility to be improved is:

•              Needed and used by the community and offering services not duplicated in the surrounding area;

•              Providing services which prevent or mitigate poverty and its effects;

•              Reintroducing or preventing the loss of community services;

•              Supported by and developed along with the local community;

•              Strategic and can demonstrate this by evidencing it has the support of the local authority, local County Voluntary Council, Local Health Board or similar partner; and

•              Sustainable over the medium to long term.

Eligibility

The Programme is community based, and will be open to community and voluntary sector organisations, including social enterprises. The focus of the programme will be on increasing opportunity and tackling poverty. The Welsh Government recognises that in order to do this we need to improve the health and wellbeing; opportunities for lifelong learning; and economic prospects of the individual members of our most vulnerable communities.

We want to see applications that are community led and developed in partnership with community, public and private sector partners. The co-location of organisations providing services such as credit union access, local health services, post office services, youth services, sports facilities, library services, etc. is encouraged.

The funding criteria

Capital grants will typically be available to a maximum of £500,000. For exceptional projects that can also demonstrate difficulties in attracting funding from other sources, this maximum could be exceeded.

Grants will be available for capital works to provide or improve community facilities which are preventing or tackling poverty by offering one or more of the following services:

•              Providing, safeguarding or re-introducing a valuable community service such as access to a credit union, post office, library, last shop/retail outlet in the area;

•              Hosting skills based or other accredited training to improve the job prospects of individual beneficiaries;

•              Hosting local health services, exercise or healthy living activities;

•              Providing community IT access, broadband access and/or IT training to aid digital inclusion;

•              Hosting a foodbank, food co-operative, access to advice services or other activity which prevents or seeks to mitigate the effects of poverty;

•              Hosting activities delivered through a Welsh Government tackling poverty programme such as Communities First or Families First;

•              Encouraging the co-location of local groups and service providers to improve the overall sustainability of the facility;

•              Making the most of available funding by avoiding the duplication of services and working with other local partners in the community, public and private sectors to improve the life chances of local people.

Applications

Applications will be invited from community led projects fitting the published criteria. The Community Facilities Programme will be a rolling grant programme which means that applications can be submitted at any time; there will be no formal funding rounds.

Applications must be able to demonstrate that the facility is sustainable and so must be accompanied by a business plan and supported by annual accounts where available.

The application process will be in two stages. Stage one will be a short application which will be used to assess eligibility and fit to the scheme criteria, i.e. the tackling poverty agenda. Applicants will get a response to stage one in 20 working days. Stage two will require the submission of a business plan. The two stage process will help to ensure that projects that are not a good fit for the funding criteria do not waste resources developing an application which has little chance of succeeding.

Potential applicants will be expected to work with their local authorities and CVCs as well as the local community in order to develop their applications.

Further information

You can get information and register for an application pack by contacting the

Community Grants team as follows:

            South East Wales:              Mike O’Shea on 0300 062 8612

North and Mid Wales:         Nesta Doughty on 0300 062 5627

West Wales:                        Helen Brown on 0300 062 8265

If above are unavailable:    Lisa Clarridge on 0300 062 8307

PAVO WINTER WARMER EVENTS

We’d love to have the opportunity catch up with you in the New Year at our forthcoming ‘Winter Warmer’ events.

• Tuesday 14^th January–Plas Dolerw, Milford Road, Newtown  4.00pm -7.00pm
• Wednesday 15^th January - Brecon (venue tbc)  4.00pm-7.00pm
• Thursday 16^th January – PAVO Offices, Unit 30, Ddole Road Industrial Estate, Llandrindod Wells 4.00pm 7.00pm

The ‘Winter Warmers’ will be a chance for you to have a glass of mulled wine (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) and a slice of cakes, as well as to:

• Come along with your queries about funding, governance and all the other practical issues involved with running a voluntary or community group
• Get your volunteer vacancies advertised through Powys Volunteer Centre
• Find out more about and give your views on the new version of the One Powys Plan
• Find out more about and give your views on Powys County Council’s consultation about their budget cuts for 2014-17.
• Find out about all the different training and support services that PAVO can provide for your group

 At the Newtown event there will also be the opportunity for you to find out more about the new pilot of ‘Neighbourhood Management’ in the Newtown area and the ways in which your organisation can influence and become involved in this new approach to planning and delivering public services.

You can call in at any time during the event and stay for just  5 minutes or the full 3 hours, however there will be short presentations being run at 4.45pm and 6.00pm at each event. It would be greatly appreciated if you were able to confirm your attendance in advance by contacting PAVO on 01597 822191 or info@pavo.org.uk