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A partnership of twelve local organisations working across Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton has been awarded a Transforming Local Infrastructure (TLI) award of £799,798. This is one of 72 partnerships across England to have received awards as part of a £30 million investment from the Office of Civil Society. It is the third largest award to a partnership in England.
The Voluntaryworks Consortium is a local partnership consisting of twelve local voluntary and community sector organisations working across the three unitary areas of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton:
- Bedfordshire Advice Forum
- Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation
- Bedfordshire Race and Equalities Council
- Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity
- Business in the Community
- Community & Voluntary Service
- ConsortiCo Ltd
- Revamp (Ampthill) Ltd
- Social Enterprise East of England
- The Learning Partnership Bedfordshire & Luton Ltd
- Voluntary Action Luton
- Voluntary and Community Action
How will the funding be used? The key activities over the next 18 months will include:
- Establishment of a partnership vehicle to operate across Bedfordshire and elsewhere, with the explicit purpose of identifying market opportunities, winning contracts, attracting investment from the private sector, and delivering innovative solutions through frontline organisations.
- Development and promotion of paid-for services, such as affordable accommodation and back-office services, specialist consultancy, advice, and networking.
- Forging stronger links with business by enabling businesses to develop and implement their corporate social responsibility objectives and voluntary and community organisations to benefit from improved access to the skills, knowledge and expertise of business.
- The transformation of information, advice and consultancy services to become more sustainable going forward, providing groups with the practical help they need to identify funding opportunities, make quality applications, and run their organisations efficiently and effectively.
The money cannot be used to fund existing services, but to transform services to make them more sustainable in the future. Only £3,000 can be spent on capital.
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."
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