Launch of the Village SOS Active and Village SOS Competition
The Big Lottery Fund has launched a campaign to help rejuvenate the UK’s rural communities, many of which have been badly hit by the loss of local amenities and the economic downturn. VSOS Active and the VSOS Competition have both now launched. Please find some more details below on these exciting initiatives..
What is Village SOS?
Village SOS is a partnership between BIG and the BBC as well as the Plunkett Foundation.
The aim of Village SOS is to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities that people living in rural areas across the UK face. We want to inspire people in rural villages across the UK to get involved and make a difference in their communities. At the heart of this is a focus upon promoting social enterprise as an engine of rural development.
In 2010, BIG awarded £2.5m to six villages who have been filmed for a BBC television series due to air in the summer 2011. We also gave ‘Learning Awards’ worth £1.7m to 4 further villages, these act as case study villages to identify best practice and help identify ‘what works’ for rural enterprises.
What is Village SOS Active?
Known previously as the ‘Learning Campaign’, Village SOS Active seeks to build upon and maximise the legacy of the main Village SOS programme, particularly the captive audience of the BBC television series. The intension is that viewers will be encouraged to set up their own village enterprises and Active will help keep this enthusiasm alive while making the process of establishing a thriving social enterprise that much easier by connecting people to the advice, support and guidance they need.
How will Village SOS help audiences set up their enterprise?
Village SOS Active will provide a number of useful resources for people considering creating a social enterprise project in their own village:
· A website and online community;
· A telephone helpline;
· Regional ‘road show’ events;
· Hard copy information packs.
The content for the website, and information packs will be created by the Plunkett Foundation who are also delivering the helpline and road shows. There will also be a small grants programme, known as the ‘Competition’, for exciting and original projects.
What is the VSOS Competition?
The Competition is a £5.3m (UK wide) small grants programme that will award ‘prizes’ for the start-up and development of innovative and exciting community enterprises. It aims to encourage fresh thinking and showcase what can be achieved through engagement with Village SOS Active more wildly.
The prizes will be between £10,000 and £30,000 for a mixture of capital and revenue, (up to £20,000 available for capital funding). We intend to award 250-300 prizes
Prize entrants will be expected to have engaged with the resources of Village SOS Active such as the online community and the helpline. This will help ensure their long term success.
For more information please go to www.villagesos.org.uk.
