Community Grant helps Wild Penwith Volunteers
Location: Penwith, Cornwall
ESF Funding: Community Grant
More than 850 people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have benefitted from the first phase of the Community Grant Scheme, which ran from 2008 to May this year (2011). The scheme was supported by ESF (European Social Fund) Convergence via the Skills Funding Agency and managed by Cornwall Development Company with Cornwall Community Foundation and the Cornwall Rural Community Council as partners. During the scheme more than £617,000 was awarded to 55 community led projects aimed at supporting people into paid work or volunteering.
One such project that received just under £12,000 was Wild Penwith Volunteers, run by Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The aims of the project were to set up, administer and support volunteers to undertake practical conservation and other countryside management tasks across Penwith and to teach new practical skills to those taking part, increasing confidence , self-esteem and the potential for employment.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Wild Penwith project advises farms across West Penwith on management of wildlife habitats, soils and nutrients, and the Wild Penwith Volunteers visited many of these farms to help with practical tasks such as scrub and bracken clearance and control of invasives. The ten month programme took place on farms and other sites across West Penwith, including Cornwall Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves. Activities included training in field identification skills, including plant and bird identification and working with the National Trust once a month to learn specialist skills, including Cornish hedge construction. A member of staff from South West Lakes Trust also instructed volunteers how to build an otter holt.
Since then seven beneficiaries have continued volunteering with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and with other organisations, including the National Trust and the Plant, Eat and Teach project (PEAT); two have obtained part-time work, one of whom now has employment in conservation with the National Trust; two obtained full-time work; two took on more work on a self-employed basis; two started part-time courses - one in Counselling and one in Conservation and Countryside Management - and one started a full-time course in Marine Science.
One Wild Penwith volunteer, Crystal Edwards, said, "It's wonderful to know that you're doing good to help Cornwall's wildlife. It's also nice to know that you're supporting Cornwall Wildlife Trust, a great cause, without asking for any wage in return; just fun, beneficial, wild work. Personally, I love it because it means I can spend a whole day outside in beautiful scenery, away from everything with lovely people, working hard and gaining experience for a future career in conservation."
For further information please contact:
Liz Cox, Wild Penwith Project Manager. Tel: 01872 273939 ext: 209.
November 2011
A second phase of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Community Grants Programme - has just been launched and will run until the end of 2013. This time almost £560,000 of ESF Convergence will be available. The first investments from the second phase of Community Grants are due be awarded to applicants this month (November) with grants in high demand.
The programme aims to support projects that benefit the unemployed and economically inactive. Participants must be aged 16 years or over who are from the hardest to reach communities and who have difficulties accessing mainstream provision and/or ESF. Priority groups to be supported include people with disabilities or health conditions; lone parents; people aged 50 or over and females although any hard to reach individual who meets the eligibility criteria can be supported.
Mark Williams, Skills Funding Agency Head of Provider Accounts, said, "It is wonderful to see that almost 900 people have received support via the Community Grants programme which uniquely focuses on small scale financial support for community organisations and the people they support. Community Grants allow us to invest ESF Convergence in a programme that is managed and influenced directly by the community it supports and as a result it has been hugely successful enabling Cornwall partners to secure a second phase of investment in this grass roots support."