Case Study; Crawley UK Borough Council

Community Development Community Cohesion Grants; Everyone can contribute to making Crawley a Cohesive town. For more information on funding that supports community cohesion initiatives please view the Community Cohesion Grants page

The Community Development Team at Crawley Borough Council works with residents and local agencies and organisations to address the needs of the community. Our work programme is a combination of grass roots development emerging from work with local communities and strategic partnerships with local agencies to benefit Crawley residents.

We work on projects and programmes that span a wide range of issues. Our three main areas of work are Community Engagement, Community Cohesion and Support to the Voluntary and Community Sector. The work we do in these three areas is guided by the priorities agreed in The Sustainable Community Strategy for Crawley. In addition, we underpin our work with a commitment to effective facilitation and partnership working.

• Please follow this link to view the Sustainable Community Strategy pages

What is Community Engagement?

Community engagement at Crawley Borough Council is about encouraging communities to actively participate by listening to them, asking about and involving them in matters that affect where they live. In Community Development we look to facilitate this. We work with residents, councillors and representatives from partner agencies and organisations to develop a number of different opportunities for people to get involved within their community and enhance community spirit.

This involves empowering residents to make a difference through providing training and support to develop projects, identifying mechanisms that enable residents to get involved and most importantly supporting people to have their voices heard.

It is about encouraging people to participate in decision making and identify the issues that are most important to them - whether that is through their local councillor, or through groups in their neighbourhood, or town-wide.

The council has recently published its Community Engagement Framework, which details how as a council we will effectively engage with the community.

• Please follow this link to view the Community Engagement Framework

What is Community Cohesion?

In a nutshell, Crawley is cohesive if people from different backgrounds get on well together; if people are aware of, appreciate and accept diversity.

It can be about people from different faiths and cultures getting along, or young and older people’s ability to speak to each other and communicate effectively. It’s also about people feeling safe and confident about where they live. It can be about making sure that all people feel they can access services provided in the town, but also about people coming together no matter what their background to work together over common interests, to celebrate, to solve problems and to develop their community.

Find out more about community cohesion grants

What support do we provide to the Voluntary and Community Sector?

Firstly, we operate a Community Grants Programme that provides funding for local voluntary and community services, for example with annual or small grants. We also jointly fund voluntary organisations to provide services such as the Volunteer Centre and Citizens Advice Bureau.

Community development promotes capacity building and partnership working with local voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations such as Crawley Council for Voluntary Service (CCVS) and Crawley Ethnic Minority Partnership. In general, capacity building is about developing people in organisations.

It can include helping groups to establish or re-visit their aims and objectives and also ways of supporting new projects or service improvement.

Crawley CVS can provide information and advice on effective charity management including setting up a charity or voluntary organisation, writing a business plan or fundraising strategy and also help with meeting organisational training needs.

If you would like more information about what the Community Development team is working on currently, you can check out the list of some of the projects below. Alternatively, you can contact the Community Development team on community.development@crawley.gov.uk  

Community Cohesion Grants

Community groups are invited to apply for grants of up to £2,500 to help

create a more cohesive Crawley. The grant funding – £50,000 over three years – is part of an area-based grant for cohesion of £195,200 from the Government Office for the South East (GOSE). The funding was awarded to support activities that help improve relationships between people from different backgrounds. Community cohesion is one of eight themes in Crawley’s Sustainable Community Strategy. It includes the vision: “A town where people from different communities interact across a range of cultural, leisure and social activities, are mutually supportive of each other, and feel part of a wider community.”

Councillor Nigel Boxall, Cabinet member for Community Engagement, said: “The council and its many partners in Crawley Together, the Local Strategic Partnership for the town, recognise that no one group or agency can achieve this vision alone. But if we work in partnership with other agencies and groups, we can together make a larger impact. “I’d urge all the groups in Crawley who do such sterling work creating more cohesive communities to get in touch and apply for a grant.”

Community and voluntary groups who have a constitution and a bank account will be able to apply to the council for a share of the funding, up to a maximum of £2,500.

To be successful they will need to meet at least one of these key priorities:

• Build confidence and a sense of belonging about living in Crawley
• Celebrate the diversity of Crawley
• Break down barriers between different groups and effectively challenge myths and assumptions
• Encourage residents to participate in and influence decision making in Crawley

All applications must also demonstrate that they promote equal opportunities.

Please follow the links to download the application form and to view the guidance notes and terms and conditions.

For more information visit www.crawley.gov.uk/communitydevelopment, call Fatima Mirza, Community Development Officer, on 01293 438658 or email fatima.mirza@crawley.gov.uk . (Crawley UK)

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