Good news for our local volunteering teams
Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) in partnership with the Volunteer Centre Sutton (VC Sutton) and other local charities has been awarded Transforming Local Infrastructure Funding by the Big Fund (the non-Lottery funding arm of the Big Lottery Fund) on behalf of the Office for Civil Society.
The bid was for just under £400,000 and Sutton is one of only 72 local areas to be awarded funding from the last pot of money being released from central government to help infrastructure organisations become more effective and self-sufficient for the future.
In a statement, Civil Society Minister Nick Hurd said: “This fund is not designed to support business as usual. It is about making things better for the front line. It’s about supporting organisations with innovative business plans who want to play their part in modernising the landscape of local infrastructure.”
The bid was developed in consultation with the voluntary/community sector and local partners and will enable us to:
· Improve support services to the voluntary/community sector by developing closer working between SCVS and VC Sutton.
· Increase support for volunteering by creating a corps of volunteers.
· Look at the feasibility of developing a voluntary sector building or hub – co-locating voluntary organisations and providing integrated support services for the voluntary/community sector.
· Support voluntary/community organisations to become more enterprising through working more closely with local businesses.
· Work across London to increase corporate giving to the local voluntary sector.
This is an exciting project which will increase the levels of support and funding that SCVS and the Volunteer Centre are able to offer to voluntary/community organisations in Sutton in these challenging times, and we look forward to working with colleagues across the borough to develop it.
Let me, Heather, know on heather.honour@sky.com if you are interested in volunteering in Sutton.