£5 million Community Investment Fund launched
Howard Lake | 8 May 2006 | News
A new fund to strengthen communities and support local publicly-funded services has been launched in Northern Ireland. Social Development Minister David Hanson said that the Community Investment Fund would contribute to building a more stable society by providing £5m to cover the period until March 2009.
The Fund, established in ‘Positive Steps’, the Government’s response to the Task Force report on Resourcing the Voluntary and Community Sector, aims to support longer term community development via funding towards essential staff salaries and key overhead costs. The initial allocation of the Fund will offer £5m towards core costs for community development organisations between April 2006 and March 2009.
The Minister said the initiative is about providing a stable basis for funding community development activity and will enable a strategic, longer-term approach to be taken to making local communities stronger.
This represents a further significant commitment on the part of my Department to providing local people and community groups with the tools to help themselves and will bring about real benefits on the ground, Mr Hanson said.
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Applications are sought from groups operating at a sub-regional or multi-neighbourhood level, which support smaller local community groups in their efforts to tackle disadvantage and build better relationships within and between communities.
Requests for Guidance Notes and application forms should be made to Una Gilmore of DSD’s Voluntary and Community Unit on 028 9082 9430 or
un*********@ds***.uk
. Application forms and Guidance Notes can be requested from DSD’s Voluntary and Community Unit and must be returned by Thursday 8th June at 4.00pm.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.