Lewisham Children and Young People’s VCS forum summary report
Thursday 23 November 2017, 10am – 1pm at Somerville Youth & Play Provision
39 people attended
Welcome and Introduction – Nalan Salih, Chairperson of CYP steering group
Nalan welcomed everyone to Lewisham’s 27th Children and Young Peoples Forum and introduced the funders from the wider lottery family; Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery and Grants for the Arts, represented by Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN). The session was also a chance for organisations to break into smaller groups to find out more from each of the funders.
Nalan introduced Mark Drinkwater who has returned to VAL as CYP Forum Lead and also heading up VALs communications..
Big Lottery Fund - Lillie Swift, Funding Manager
Lillie provided an overview of Big Lottery’s vision. There’s a new emphasis of ‘People in the Lead.’ The Fund is interested in receiving applications that demonstrate that people are involved at all stages; in the origin of ideas, the project design and its development. There are three funding priorities, 1)Stronger relationships, 2) Shared and sustainable places and spaces and 3) Early action to prevent problems and tackle disadvantage. BLF wants to fund smaller,locally based groups and avoid duplication and encourage complimentarity. Lastly Lillie outlined other newer approaches too, including a move toward simpler application processes and being more local and adopting a more conversational approach so that the best ideas in communities and partnerships are created.
Heritage Lottery – Norma Pearson, Development Officer
Norma explained that HLF has five key funding programmes, including its Young Roots programme which is likely to be of more interest to CYP focused groups. She outlined x secrets of success in obtaining project funding from HLF as, 1. Use PES, 2. Read programme Guidance, 3. Attend information seminar, 4. Consider what makes a good Heritage project, 5. Know your stakeholders, participants and audiences, 6. Think about outcomes & achievements, 7. Plan carefully, 8. Be realistic, 9. Offer good value for money for National Lottery players.
Grants for the Arts, Jane Hendrie, Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN)
Jane outlined key information from GfTA, Grant range is £1,000 to £100,000.
Individuals, organisations, libraries and museums are all eligible to apply. Grants for the Arts is a rolling programme with no deadlines. Decisions on applications for £15,000 or less take six weeks. Decisions on applications of over £15,000 take 12 weeks. Some of the things that applicants can apply for from GfTAincluding festivals and carnivals, events, productions and exhibitions, artistic research and development and more.
For more support groups can contact: GfTA Phone: 0845 300 6200, 0161 934 4317. Email: , Website: . You can also book a one to one meeting with Jane Hendrie at Lewisham Education Arts Network,
Small group discussions allowed people to ask questions and discuss their project ideas with each funder/funder rep in greater detail. A copy of each funders presentation is attached to this report.
Networking: Evaluation results showed that on average people made up to X new contacts each from the event that they intend to follow up after the meeting. Full evaluation results are on page 2.
Feedback, summary and close
Nalan Salih, CYP Chair closed the meeting.
Evaluation results: 18 monitoring forms returned
Outcomes of the day:
a) Increased understanding of the lottery family funders key priorities (please tick the statements that best describe your knowledge)
BeforeAfter
I have no knowledge at all2
I know a little101
I know quite a bit37
I know a lot7
Summary: Most people who responded, 10, had a little prior knowledge of Big Lottery’s funding priorities and 14 felt tht they knew quite a bit or a lot more at the end
b) Increased awareness of funding opportunities with the ‘lottery family’
BeforeAfter
I have no knowledge at all3
I know a little111
I know quite a bit27
I know a lot8
While 13 were a little or quite aware of lottery opportunities, more knoew quite a bit and a lot at the end of the session. An average improvement score of 2.
Opportunities to network for potential joint working
How many contacts did you make today that you intend to follow up on:
- Average no of contacts = 3 per person
What topics/issues would you like to suggest for future CYP Forums?
- Sustainability II (with current funding climate)
- How to break the competitor mindset/ how to partner without competing
- More meet the funder events
- Mental health
- Healthy eating/excess/wellbeing
- Disability
- Bringing together local organisations to share what are the major issues – they are dealing with and young people are facing today – include young people (if you do this already)
- Trusts and Foundations
- Partnership work in Lewisham
- More funding opportunities, especially from Lewisham Council
- Local CYP provisions – who is who? Joint up partnership working
How would you improve in the future?
- Practical sessions. Mock applications
- General introductions so we know all groups that were in the room
- Event was well organised and hosted
- The event was perfect! Maybe split groups in different rooms (if possible) for better sound
Final Comments
Very informative I enjoyed the event
I really enjoyed the events and made new contacts
Follow up the action
Thank you!
Very informative event
Fantastic event! Really useful to meet different organisations in Lewisham doing a great job. Thank you to funders for the information and inspiration.
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