Roll up, roll up for Big Society funding!

Community groups, resident’s associations and other grassroots organisations will be able to bid for grants from a new fund being set up by the council to support ‘Big Society’ projects in Wandsworth.

Local organisations and groups of residents who come together with the aim of improving their neighbourhoods, supporting volunteering projects, promoting active citizenship or carrying out civic duties will now be able to apply for funding from the newly created Wandsworth Big Society Fund.

Councillors at last night's (Wednesday's) finance and corporate resources committee agreed to set aside £169,000 to support grassroots organisations that carry out schemes that enhance people's quality of life, take greater responsibility for the fabric of their neighbourhoods or improve local services by devising new and better ways of delivering them.

Community groups that undertake projects to help improve the quality of life for the borough's most deprived citizens will be given priority for this funding.

Councillors also agreed to set up a second fund to help support local voluntary groups that are struggling financially in the current economic climate.

The Wandsworth Discretionary Fund will make £200,000 available to groups with a proven track record that supports the council's corporate objective of "building a prosperous, vibrant and cohesive community".

The council's executive member for finance and corporate resources Maurice Heaster said: "We fully support the idea of the Big Society and the concept of communities becoming empowered and taking greater responsibilities in providing local services.

"We are actively promoting the idea of transferring powers from the state to individual citizens and local grassroots organisations. Often it is local people and local groups who know best what their communities need and how best to deliver improvements in their neighbourhoods.

"Our new Wandsworth Big Society Fund will support local groups in coming together and delivering these important quality of life improvements.

"And the Wandsworth Discretionary Fund will offer a valuable lifeline to some of our already established but hard-pressed voluntary organisations that are feeling the strain in the current financial situation. Many of these groups do a wonderful job supporting those around them and we want to offer as much help as we can under the funding constraints we too face."

The creation of the two funds coincides with the appointment of a new organisation to run the borough's volunteering support services from April.

Leading charity Groundwork London will place a large number of volunteers in a wide range of volunteering projects across the borough over the next three years with funding from the town hall.

The council will invest a further £380,000 to encourage more people to take up volunteering opportunities in projects that benefit the community.

The charity is planning to set up volunteer outreach teams and use a mobile volunteer centre that will visit schools, community centres, job centres, hospitals, colleges, and places of worship to develop volunteering opportunities in a wide range of organisations and projects.

It will also use new technologies like social media to create an online volunteer clearing-house where volunteers can be matched with local worthy causes.

The organisation is a leading member of a network of charities, set up in the early 1980s, to support and help people and organisations create better neighbourhoods, build skills and job prospects, and to live and work in a greener way.

Groundwork London employs 190 staff with expertise in community engagement, supporting deprived communities, business, finance, fundraising, wildlife and conservation, youth work, and project management. It is halfway through an existing six year contract with the council, which is working to improve the borough's environment. It is also working on creating a new Wandle regional park encompassing the green space around the banks of the river, stretching from Wandsworth to Croydon.

Groups interested in accessing funds in either the Wandsworth Big Society Fund or the Wandsworth Discretionary Fund should contact Chris Blyth on (020) 8871 7810 or email cblyth@wandsworth.gov.uk.