[WiLT] Whitehall plugs gaps in ChangeUp with £6m for marginalised groups

[WiL Admin]

Whitehall plugs gaps in ChangeUp with £6m for marginalised groups

A new Home Office fund for marginalised voluntary and community groups
was launched this week after it emerged they were failing to access a
£70m infrastructure pot.

The Improving Reach programme will prioritise those who missed out on
earlier infrastructure funding under the £70m ChangeUp programme -
black and minority ethnic, refugee and migrant and faith groups as
well as those operating in isolated rural areas.

The fund, which expects to make between 50 and 80 awards from a £6m
pot this financial year, will be managed by Capacitybuilders, the
agency established by the Home Office in April to administer ChangeUp.
If successful it will be opened up to other hard-to-reach groups.

A spend of £5m is envisaged in the second year, but further funding
depends on the outcome of next year's comprehensive spending review
when the whole ChangeUp programme comes up for review.

Third sector minister Ed Miliband said: 'The Improving Reach programme
will ensure these organisations receive more generous support to help
them shape services, get involved in delivery and reach out to the
excluded.'

Simon Hebditch, chief executive of Capacitybuilders, told New Start:
'A lot of hard to reach groups have found it difficult for a number of
reasons to get involved in the programme to date.

'Our board had quite a long debate about whether to fund the
mainstream or have a targeted programme for specific groups and we
came to the view that there was a need for a targeted programme so we
are offering this as well.'

Bolaji Bank-Anthony, director of the Black Neighbourhood Renewal
Network, an umbrella organisation with 300 members, welcomed the new
funding.

'When the ChangeUp plan was developed the money went to the CVS groups
in the different boroughs and did not reach BME and marginalised
groups, so there is a need for this investment.'

Ben Kernighan, the National Council of Voluntary Organisations'
director of services and development, also welcomed the move but said
it was 'a shame that the fund is not aimed at the full range of hard
to reach groups, such as women's groups and lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender groups'.

Details: http://www.capacitybuilders.org.uk/fund/newfund/default.asp

>From News Start - http://www.newstartmag.co.uk/news997.html

Posted on WiLT blog at
http://www.freecharity.org.uk/~womeninlondon/?p=118