Local community buildings transformed through £2.2 million capital investment from Capacitybuilders

96 charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises are set to receive a share of over £2.2 million capital investment to improve vital facilities they provide for their communities.

Small scale improvements

The grants, worth up to £30,000 each are part of Capacitybuilders’ Capital Investment Programme and will support small scale improvements to local third sector resource centres across England.

Funding for the Capital Investment Programme comes from the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office.

Developing effective and sustainable support services

As a direct result of this latest funding, a wealth of frontline groups will benefit from more effective and sustainable support services, enabling them to better meet the needs of local communities impacted of the economic downturn.

Meeting local third sector needs

In response to the needs of third sector organisations and community groups in Bradford, for example, Grange Interlink Ltd are using their £30,000 grant award to renovate an unused internal courtyard into a fully equipped, multifunctional conference facility.

A safe and valued environment in which to thrive

As well as helping local groups to become more effective in a safe and valued environment, these new facilities will also allow Grange Interlink to deliver training to third sector organisations on a range of topics such as how to respond to the changes brought about by the recession.

Affordable and accessible facilities

Similarly, a grant award of £18,000 is enabling CAN Mezzanine Ltd to provide affordable and accessible virtual office facilities to a range of local charities and voluntary and community groups across London. 

Shared resources

With a focus on sharing resources and collaborative opportunities, they aim to provide access to hot desks and conference and meeting space as well as training and networking opportunities and a comprehensive library resource.

Encouraging community engagement

With its grant of £29,500, The Colebridge Trust Ltd in Birmingham aims to achieve greater levels of community participation and use for services - particularly from groups that are hard to reach or poorly served because of factors such geography, culture and faith – by providing a mobile exhibition, consultation, meeting and office space for a range of third sector organisations to use for activities including community engagement and volunteer recruitment.

Improved service delivery

Speaking about the awards, Minister for the Third Sector, Angela Smith said;

“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.”

Other capital investment from Capacitybuilders

Overall the Capital Investment Programme is worth up to £7m and is broken into three streams.  Since its launch in 2008, nearly £1.4 million was awarded in the first round of grants under Strand A the programme, allowing 61 local resource centres to make improvements to their premises, just over £1.2million has been awarded under Strand B of the programme and Strand C awards are due to be announced in mid February.