COMMUNITY PROGRAMME TO AID LOCAL FUNDRAISING

Two schemes worth a total of £20,000 which aim to help local organisations find funding and advice are being launched by Western Isles Enterprise and the Community Economic Development programme.

One will allow small groups to pay their own resource workers to spend the time needed to apply for grants from other organisations.

The other will cover the "networking project" costs of group members wanting to travel to other parts of the Western Isles to learn from the experiences of similar schemes to their own.

WIE chief executive Donnie Macaulay said that in order for Island communities to gain the maximum benefit from the various funding programmes available, it was essential all the funding was used within the time-limits set down. "This project will assist in doing this by ensuring that applications are dealt with more efficiently, netting the maximum benefit for the groups concerned and their communities."
 
As for the networking assistance, Mr Macaulay said this funding would be used to increase the breadth of experience of groups throughout the Islands, and hence boost their confidence. "This funding will enable groups to learn from each other¹s experiences and at the same time get to know each other and develop together," Mr Macaulay said.

Each scheme will have £4000 from the CED programme, which is part funded by the European Union through the Highlands and Islands Special Transitional programme. The networking initiative will also have £4000 aid from WIE while the resource worker scheme will have £2000 from WIE and a further £4,000 from other local agencies.

The resource worker assistance would be available to local groups to help with the completion of lottery applications; funding applications to local and national agencies; requests to trusts; to deal with applications from groups with an interest in land reform and from those with an interest in renewable energy.

The scheme would be aimed particularly at areas or groups which do not now have the opportunity to make use of a development worker. The idea of having the separate scheme is that applications for resource worker assistance can be made separately and dealt with quickly. One aim is to help groups overcome the 'volunteer fatigue' which can affect community members working long additional hours on favoured schemes. The aim is to assist at least ten different groups.

The assistance for small networking projects would aim to help 10/15 projects, again providing a streamlined application process to enable small-scale visits to go ahead rapidly.

These types of visits are expected to continue developing with the improvement in the ferry services across the Sound of Harris and Sound of Barra, enabling communities to transfer experience far more easily than in the past.

For further information on the CED programme or these initiatives please contact John MacMillian (01870 604933).