2. Current Building - WW1 YMCA hut.
Structural report 2009, concluded the hall was beyond economic
repair and recommended its use be limited to 2 years!
Wooden with a brick skin applied in the 60’s
3. Funding achieved during 2012-2013
• NCF - £3k New Tables and Chair
• Love Norfolk - £1k New cooker
• Freebridge - £300 New Larder Fridge
• Love Norfolk- £1500 New gas heaters
• Borough Council - £15k towards the project for the new hall
These successes gave us confidence to apply to the Lottery
4. The lottery don’t fund buildings, they fund projects that solve
problems.
How did we find out what problems our community has?
We undertook 2 years of –
Community, user group and event surveys
Open consultations and focus groups -
Consultation during the Active
Norfolk Roadshow 2014
Open Consultation at the AGM 2014
using feedback boards
5. Pizza Tea Youth focus group 2014
Reminiscence focus group with
Older People 2014
Focus groups
8. Consultations evidenced the following problems -
• Young people are bored and feel isolated
• Older people are lonely, depressed and feel isolated.
• Mental and physical health are affected by our rural
isolation
• Disabled people aren’t integrated into the community.
• Wereham’s problems match those in the surrounding
villages.
10. During the consultations, we asked what people
need to resolve their problems-
• Physical activities for all ages.
• Youths need the opportunity to socialise.
• All ages need the opportunity to feel valued through volunteering.
• Adults need to learn new skills.
• Older People need the opportunity to socialise.
• All ages need opportunities to create community spirit and a feeling of
togetherness.
11. In response to people’s problems and needs,
our project will provide –
• Youth Group for ages 11+
• New Skills courses supported by Adult Ed.
• Physical Activities for all ages and abilities
• Older Persons Social Group
• Heritage Group
• Craft Group
• Village Cinema catering for children and adults
• Regular community events
We have Lead Volunteers in place to co-ordinate these activities
and we’ll need a small army of volunteers to support!
12. Are we able to provide these services and activities in
the current hall? No!
usage restrictions in place –
• No activities that may cause vibrations.
• Closure in the event of snow load on the roof.
• Closure with wind speeds in excess of 40mph.
We need a new hall!!!
13. Our proposal
The 1ST UK purpose built Passivhaus
Community Building
Ultra-Low
Energy building
that requires
little energy for
space heating
or cooling
14. Village SOS & C.A.N.
• Post Stage 1 Lottery bid, we needed a bit of support as our expertise
and resources were lacking.
• We followed a lead from a Lottery email and contacted Chris Cowcher at Village SOS
for support.
• With Village SOS funding, we were able to meet with CAN to develop a Plan of support
which included
• Discussions and information on investment models and types of funding.
• Sharing of OCSI stats for 8 surrounding villages to support the community needs
with formal evidence.
• A Funding search as the starting point for the projects funding strategy
• Guidance on completing an evaluation plan for the Stage 2 Lottery bid
• Converting the charity to CIO Status to mitigate against the risk of undertaking a
high value building project
Our trustee indemnity insurance extends to £500K max, but the project is
estimated to hit £1M
15. Village SOS & C.A.N. cont.
The support we received was vital.
• None of the committee had CIO experience or understood the conversion process.
The funding enabled Charlotte Stannard, our VSOS adviser to support the CIO conversion
process by
• attending committee meetings to educate trustees and answer queries.
• support public queries when we took the members vote at the AGM.
• hold our hand through the conversion process with on site meetings to resolve
queries on the governing document.
• completing paperwork, on-line questionnaires, trustee checks.
• and submission of the application!
The benefits of the support –
• We have complete confidence in Charlotte’s knowledge, guidance and the CAN Team.
• We have saved on vital project man time and cost.
• We still have the opportunity to refer to CAN for support and queries.
We would not have benefited from this level of support from a solicitor.
16. Our achievements since Village SOS
funding & CAN support –
• The Lottery confirmed our funding plan as ‘Robust’!
• We passed Stage 2 of the BIG Lottery.
• Awarded £28k development funding from the BIG Lottery.
• Secured the release of £5k development funding from the Borough Council.
• Secured planning permission for the new hall.
• Awarded 5k funding from Wereham PC to use as 3rd party funding for our WREN
application.
• We’re submitting our request to Convert to CIO at the end of July.
