Stockton Voluntary and Community Sector Investment Fund

The Stockton Voluntary and Community sector Investment Fund is an important part of a package of support that Stockton Council, working with Catalyst, provides for voluntary and community groups working within the borough of Stockton-on-Tees.

Image of people This year's fund is worth £234,000 and is split across two rounds. The first round closed on 17 January 2012. The second round will give voluntary and community organisations another opportunity to bid for support, from £5,000 up to £40,000, from the Investment Fund.

The cash is designed to help voluntary and community sector organisations to support and develop their own capacity, enabling them to become bid ready and to compete for and deliver contracts and activity which support Stockton Borough's Sustainable Community Strategy.

Organisations can submit more than one bid in a calendar year provided it is to address a different area of capacity building. Priority will be given to applications that support bidding for procurement opportunities in the public sector and that will support the organisation in developing projects that meet any gaps in service provision. The fund itself is for organisational capacity building and will not fund service delivery.

Successful applications in 2011/12 update

Fifteen organisations directly benefited from the 2011/12 fund and a further 16 others benefited from tailored workshops tackling some of the needs they had raised in their applications.

The organisations which are benefiting from the Investment Fund include:

A Way Out - a women and young persons outreach, education and prevention charity - update of IT and software to make the organisation more efficient and compliant with the requirements of potential commissioners
BCT Events Community Interest Company - a social enterprise based in Billingham on Teesside which promotes everything recreational especially sport and music - Funding for assistance towards a professional PA system to provide the capability to stage both indoor and outdoor events. Funding was also awarded for two projectors and screens, one which will be used as a teaching aid and for small meetings and the other to use when hosting large scale events
Blind Voice UK - a charity supporting the blind and visually impaired equipment and software to support the development of the transcription service to increase income generation.
Elm Tree Community Centre - Funding for IT equipment of IT wireless filter and IT technical support to ensure that they can continue with their UK Online initiative which has been a source of income for the centre.
New Horizons - a charity which supports people with mental health problems and their carers - further develop a Community Drop in service, at a new venue, aimed at improving mental and physical well being of those living in Stockton. Proposal included some building work, kitchen units and equipment, furniture, IT equipment, legal costs, staff training, branding costs including shopfront and counselling course equipment.
PSG - an organisation which provides free professional support directly to third sector organisations working for the social and/or economic regeneration of our local area- to resource the design, development and implementation of two income generating products; Team Viva & Viva Angels. Team Viva are groups of individuals from the private sector carrying out blocks of volunteering within the sector and Viva Angels is specifically trained individuals who assist in health and social care, independent living and general community isolation.
PSG and Tees Valley Community Foundation- to help support a merger of the two organisations.
Tees Valley Rural Community Council- To pay for the Para legal fellowship and IT equipment
The Children's Society - Installation of a permanent disability ramp to improve access to service users, enable more service users to engage with activities and strengthen their application to Big Lottery Fund.
YMCA - external training department for the Tees Valley YMCA, to enable them to sell bespoke training packages
Billingham International Folklore Festival Ltd - to train a pool of volunteers in Health and Safety in preparation for the festival's 50th Anniversary
Cultures CIC - to develop a Community Cultural Café and training resource for the Black and Ethnic Minority, refugee and new communities in Stockton
Eastern Ravens Trust - to improve their IT and merchandising capabilities
Know How North East - to fund a Business Manager for Clarences Community Resource Centre who will be responsible for nurturing a cluster of enterprises to form an income base for the Centre
Tees Valley Arts - to enable staff to gain the Preparation for Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector Certificate.

In addition six organisations took part in a Quality Assurance pilot aimed at strengthening their potential to bid for contracts to deliver services.

The Council's package of support for the voluntary and community sector led to an award for Empowering Communities from the North East Empowerment Partnership in the 2011 Voluntary and Community Sector Awards. The package has also been highlighted as a best practice case study by the Northern Regional Efficiency and Improvement Partnership.