COMMUNITY
Community Covenant Grant What makes a good project?
With the 100th pledge in sight, the MoD’s Community Covenant Scheme is growing across the country. It is bringing together Armed Forces and civilian communities and fostering understanding and respect between them. The supporting Grant Scheme is picking up pace too. But how do you know if your project might be successful? Here, the Armed Forces Covenant team let us in on how the panel makes its decisions…
Background
In May last year the Government published the Armed Forces Covenant, running through which is the principle that the Service people and their families and Veterans, should not face any disadvantage because of their military experience. In some cases, such as the sick, injured or bereaved, this means giving special treatment that civilians wouldn’t receive.
Two months later the Community Covenant was launched – with the aim of bringing together Armed Forces and civilian communities locally. Today, more than eighty statements of mutual support between these two communities exist from Cornwall to Moray. These partnerships provide a framework for individuals and service providers to find local solutions to the challenges the Armed Forces face. In return, they encourage the Armed Forces community to support their local community.
The grant scheme
As a gesture of support for this work the Treasury has allocated £30 million over four years in the form of a grant scheme. The scheme considers applications from local groups for projects that deliver tangible results and meet the overall aims of the Community Covenant Scheme. A bid for funding can be raised by anyone within a Community Covenant area across the UK, for example charities, the single Services or individual members of the Services or public.
Bids can only come from areas that have Community Covenant Partnerships in place, because all applications must first be endorsed by those local partnerships. Endorsed bids then come to the MoD to be assessed by our panel that includes Treasury, Local Authority and Families Federation representatives.
Successful bids
As long as a project supports the aims of the Community Covenant, and its local authority has signed one, it can apply for
www.raf-ff.org.uk
funding. We’ve had bids in for hundreds of pounds and some for hundreds of thousands of pounds. And with four panels under our belts we have noticed certain trends in the applications that succeed, including:
• They have demonstrated a clear local need for the project and support from stakeholders
• They have shown how the project delivers value for money and often have secured funding in kind
• They have clearly identified the beneficiary groups and included detail on numbers of beneficiaries and timescales
• They have described what the demonstrable impact will be to the beneficiary groups
• They have delivered something ‘new’ that is outside the remit or responsibility of the Local Authority, MoD or HIVE
Money that counts From crèches and art projects to outreach programmes and celebratory events, the Community Covenant Grant Scheme has allocated more than £4 million and counting. Martin Gillet of the Oxfordshire Play Association successfully bid for £15,000 towards running a Playday event for Armed Forces families at each of the six bases across Oxfordshire.
When the panel read Mr Gillet’s bid, the decision to award it funding was unanimous. The idea would benefit both the Armed Forces and local people in the area, and particularly would integrate the two communities to forge links and raise awareness.
He reports:
“Our project began in Nov 11 when we contacted our relevant Armed Forces contacts across Oxfordshire. We felt there was a local need for our project because some military families were isolated from the communities
they were living in. We gained very strong support from County, District and Town Councils, Housing Associations, Schools, Children’s Centres, Churches, Uniformed Groups, Local Clubs and Societies including Sports Groups and the Emergency Services to name but a few. We secured funding from a variety of sources.
“The events were all booked for Spring 2012 and took place, wherever security allowed, on the actual bases to get people together. In Didcot, it was the first time in 15 years they’ve allowed members of the public on the base.
“In total we estimate that 7,000 military and civilian guests attended the six events and feedback received has been excellent – the days encouraged real community cohesion and made sure military families know what is on offer to them. A lot of the communities have already said they are hoping to do it again next year.”
Playdays are one of many Community Covenant grant scheme success stories. We gave £6,180 to a theatre collaboration with students from Exeter University to create a play based on veterans’ experiences, and £25,000 to a project to celebrate a people’s history of Catterick Garrison. Another great example is one of the smaller grants we’ve given. Lepe Country Park won £700 to help run a two-day event called ‘The New Forest Remembers’ in July this year, looking back at its D Day heritage. The event included a memorial service and recognised the ongoing service of forces personnel today.
Applications welcome News of deserving schemes like Playday acquiring much needed funds is terrific. If you have an idea that could bring together the Armed Forces and the civilian communities in your area, please take a look at our website,
www.mod.uk/covenant, where you’ll find the criteria for applications and the forms you need to fill in to apply.
We look forward to hearing from you. Envoy Winter 2012 43
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