Dalston Community First is established to bring together the local community and improve the facilities and environment in Dalston through the Community First Neighbourhood Matched Fund.
Community First is an £80m government-funded programme that will run for four years, until March 2015. It will help communities come together through new and existing community groups, to identify their strengths and local priorities, plan for their future and become more resilient.
Community First is a ‘matched’ fund programme, which means that every £1 provided in funding must be matched by a similar amount of in-kind donations (this means donations of cash, goods and services, or people’s time). The funding consists of the £30m Neighbourhood Match Fund small grants programme for some of the most deprived areas in the country and a national £50m Endowment Match Challenge.
The Neighbourhood Match Fund will use the £30m fund to encourage people in deprived communities to give their time and expertise to local projects, to raise money and help make their local area a better place to live.
The funding available for the Dalston Ward as part of this programme is:
Year one: £5,624
Year two: £8,489
Year three: £8,488
Year four: £11,309
A panel of local people will set funding priorities for the ward and make recommendations about how the funding should be spent to Community Development Foundation, who will administer the grants.
Agreed ward priorities 2014 -15
- Support those in the community who consciously seek to build links and create opportunities for inter community engagement.
- Encourage and facilitate, volunteering, improving the environment and fundraising for local community groups and projects.
- Create a voice in housing for those who feel they are not heard, in this process. In particular those who feel that they are being excluded because of the lack of affordable housing and projects giving advice to Dalstons homeless and tenants of private landlords
- Empowering young people to develop themselves through engagement with cultural, economic and educational opportunities.
The lucky groups who were successful in the final grant round will have received their grant by Friday 6 February 2015 and we can start winding down or programme work and looking ahead to how we can still help Dalston develop.
The panel has produced a plan for the ward that will form the bases of further consultation and discussions with local communities, other stake holders and the Council.
Dalston Community First 