National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF)
Auckland Youth and Community Centre Limited
Building Community Resilience 2022-25: expression of interest
Auckland Youth and Community Centre Limited (AYCC) intends to apply to the NLCF for three years’ funding to support the development and delivery of a new project, Building Community Resilience, for Woodhouse Close residents. Whilst we understand that we have been extremely successful in the last six years to secure funds, we believe this project is needed more than ever. Whilst our current project “Widening Horizons in Woodhouse Close” continues to make unbelievable in-roads in support for our community, we know that Covid-19 has set back many children, young people and adults.
We know that Covid-19 does not affect all communities or social groups in the same way. Attention must be paid to the differential impacts on different groups and communities. Any new approaches to prevent the spread of the disease will be hindered by existing health inequalities, which will also exacerbate any long-term impacts. For all local residents, we believe it is both crucial and timely to emphasise the concepts of community recovery and resilience within the narratives surrounding Covid-19. This project’s overarching message is that, for community recovery interventions to be effective and transformational, their design and delivery must clearly incorporate the views, insights and knowledge of local residents and those identified as having additional vulnerability to COVID-19.
To make the Building Community Resilience Project a success from 2022 to 2025, AYCC will work together with people, with partners, and in our respective places, to:
- Support residents from Woodhouse Close to recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
- Better understand and tackle social and health inequalities.
- Build and nurture safe, supportive and inclusive communities.
We will do this by covering several themes:
- Crisis intervention and hardship. Whilst dealing with increasing number of ‘general’ crisis situations, we are now finding increasing numbers of families and individuals experiencing severe financial difficulty, with more and more people experiencing real hardship, many for the first time.
- Mental health and wellbeing. This has worsened throughout our current NLCF-funded project. The ‘mental health pandemic’ linked to the Covid-19 pandemic has seen more people suffer from anxiety and depression, especially those living with mental health problems before Covid-19.
- Social isolation and loneliness. Covid-19 has increased social isolation and loneliness for Woodhouse Close residents. Some have experienced a loss of confidence and are nervous or fearful about going out and about, particularly those more socially isolated or housebound.
- Digital exclusion. Whilst Covid-19 may have encouraged more people to use digital technology, there are concerns about the impact on people who do not or cannot access it. With the pandemic resulting in an increasing reliance upon technology to access education/services, apply for jobs, manage finances and stay in touch with friends and family, this has presented many local people with a real problem. For some, this has only added to any pre-existing health problems.
- Physical activity and mobility. People have been spending more time at home during Covid-19; for some this has meant being less active, resulting in loss of mobility and increased frailty, particularly for older people. Additionally, some of our Woodhouse Close partners have expressed concerns that, as a result of Covid-19, residents have had fewer opportunities to be active.
Our project also wishes to support and enable community recovery. We will work in consultation with our communities to discover how best to develop an innovative, flexible range of initiatives to rebuild social cohesion and mitigate the impacts of social isolation worsened by the pandemic. It is our view that specific additional resources are needed, to enable us to improve and enhance the mental health and wellbeing of residents. This includes targeting engagement efforts and service delivery toward the needs and aspirations of vulnerable groups and populations deemed at greater risk.
Proposed budget (over a 3-year period):
The budget is much lower than in previous projects. This is for many reasons; most significantly, due to a highly successful and agile business development programme which has been carried out within the organisation over the past few years. This key part of the organisation’s success has, in part, been made possible by the NCLF, a proportion of whose grants allocated to AYCC from 2016 to 2022 has funded our Business Development Manager’s salary. Since early 2020, our successful business model has been adapted to steer us on a safe, secure financial path through Covid-19, resulting in:
- Being able to continue to trade, even to the point of supporting those needing our help through lockdown whilst the building was closed.
- Building resources during the pandemic via the means available (largely through an increased volume and variety of grant applications) in order to remain afloat, and eventually to be able to plan ahead; for example, we are now looking at greater income diversification once more.
- The ability to secure core costs from other funders, in particular a recent award of £180k from the Henry Smith Charity which will be a cornerstone of our core budget for the next 3 years.
- Increased confidence in our chances of being able to secure funds to continue to deliver our wide range of Youth Work and associated projects e.g. a planned application to The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Youth Investment Fund (when open), Local County Councillors.
For the application to NCLF for our new project, we have reduced the Delivery Manager’s hours from 35 hours per week (hpw) to 10 hpw, with funds agreed in principle by Durham County Council to cover the shortfall. Due to the significant increase in demand for crisis invention, and our proven work with Woodhouse Close Church Community Centre, we have increased the Crisis Support Worker’s hours from 20 to 40 hpw to support this key work (estimated total budget £83,000 inc. support costs).
It is our view that – if successful with this application to the NLCF, and if the key community recovery elements are successfully embedded and maintained through this project – residents of Woodhouse Close are more likely to be resilient to future crises and emergencies. Our vast experience in community development shows that, if nurtured, relationships forged during times of crisis can be robust and have longevity. Relationships developed as part of our plan for community recovery will also underpin well-connected communities with effective information sharing, high volunteer levels, strong social cohesion and the ability to mobilise effectively during future crises or emergencies.
