Projects Being Funded
Strategic Objective 2: Address social, economic and environmental decline and disadvantage.
...integrated projects which contribute towards developing sustainable neighbourhoods focusing on community enterprise and the social economy to create jobs for local people...
Knowle West Media Project
Service Provider: Knowle West Media Project
Project Outline: The Knowle West Media Project works in partnership with the people of Knowle West to promote greater participation in multi- media activities (photography, video, multimedia, website and the internet) by the local community. It provides services to facilitate links between local groups, community organisations, services and the Neighbourhood Action Plan. The organisation deliver projects that directly involve the local community in the regeneration of the area, teaching new skills and creatively exploring the ways in which media work can both benefit and enhance the local community.
During the delivery of the project KWMP provided traineeships and work experience placements for young people, and provided the first step into skills development through project work and training workshops.
KWMP is committed to providing equal opportunites for all members of the community.
Personal and Community Finance Project
Service Provider: BACEN
Project Outline: This project has successfully been completed with support from Objective 2. Based on Wilder Street in St Pauls, the project helped combat financial exclusion through the development of credit union services within the Objective 2 area. The project increased credit union membership by 2000 people.
The Personal and Community Finance Initiative provided people with an alternative means for money and welfare benefits advice, if membership of the credit union is taken up. It also assisted them to gain confidence in their financial management skills, build up savings and provide a stepping-stone in terms of accessing bank accounts.
St Paul's Community Links Scheme
Service Provider: Knightstone Housing Association
Project Outline: The project has improved the quality of life for the residents of St Pauls by reducing crime and improving the profile, the safety level and the appearence of the area. A team of Community Links provided a physical and conspicuous presence on the streets. They were able to give advice, assistance and support the vulnerable members of the community.
The scheme provided a community safety initiative establishing neighbourhood watch and business watch schemes, deterring street drug use and a providing a daily presence on the streets in the target area. The project improved the local environment by addressing the problems of graffiti, dumping and vandalism, as well as working with the local community to enable them to take ownership of their local environment and tackle environmental degradation.
The Community Links Scheme also helped develop and sustain local communities. The links play an actve role in local community life by attending resident's groups meetings, helping out at children's activities and undertaking outreach work to address key issues.
Knowle West Wardens Scheme
Service Provider: Knowle West Development Trust
Project Outline: The scheme involved the employment of 10 wardens who worked as a team patrolling the streets in Knowle West, providing a visible and accessible presence. The wardens maintained a high profile and become familiar and helpful points of contact for local people.
The wardens helped to deter anti-social behaviour and provided support to the vulnerable members of the community. Their work complemented the activities of the police in the local area. The wardens also alerted key agencies to service failures such as street-lighting, collection of refuse and needle removal.
Silai for Skills Relocation and Community Building Project
Service Provider: Silai for Skills
Project Outline: Silai for Skills' vision is to "inspire women from all cultural backgrounds to improve their personal lives, their communities and their economic potential."
With ERDF support Silai expanded their services by refurbishing a derelict building in the heart of the Bristol Objective 2 area which has enabled various community enterprises, including themselves, to expand and develop. This has enabled more people in the local community to gain access to the support services provided by the community enterprises located within the new premises.
The project involved the purchase and refurbishment of a partly derelict site on Easton Road which now provides expanded office space for a variety of local community enterprises. The building provides 6 workshops, a creche space, 2 incubator units, youth provision, office space for Silai and Sure Start and a staff room, dining room and rest area.
The project has provided accessible, purpose-built premises that enable the delivery of creative textiles, business skills and basic skills training. It also facilitates the provision of a range of community and youth activities to specific excluded and marginalised groups.
The City Academy - Learning Through Enterprise/Sustainability
Service Provider: The City Academy, Bristol
Project Outline: A multi-million pound City Academy, serving the wards of Easton and Lawrence Hill, opened in place of St George Community College on Russell Town Avenue. The Academy offers new opportunities for 11-19 year olds, as well as pre-vocational, vocational and basic-skills courses for adult learners.
ERDF funding was granted to fit out a catering/hospitality training centre and the Interactive Environmental Learning Centre. Both centres function as vocational training facilities, aimed at developing key skills and promoting entrepreneurial activity. The Interactive Environmental Learning Centre is the central component of the Research Village of the City Academy. It has been built in line with the latest research into environmentally sound and sustainable design.
Through the provision of a wide range of training opportunities the Academy hopes to increase the skills and employability of local people.
The Beacon IT Adult Learning Centre
Service Provider: St Georges Community College
Project Outline: The ERDF funding was required by St Georges Community College on Russell Town Avenue to complete the capital development of the Beacon Centre, the new UK online ICT learning centre, being built at the College. The project has increased the number of locally accessible lifelong learning opportunities in the Easton and Lawrence Hill Wards.
The centre provides a wide ranging curriculum focusing on IT, basic skills, community languages, community history, vocational and pre-vocational courses. It is fully equipped with new ICT technology including laptops for outreach work at satellite centres. The centre has a public-access computer room, as well as teaching rooms containing 36 computers and 10 laptops for outreach work.
St Paul's Learning and Family Centre
Service Provider: St Paul's Unlimited - St Paul's Community Partnership
Project Outline: The St Paul's Learning and Family Centre offers a whole range of "first rung" learning opportunities and work-based training activities, supported by an internet cafe (including a full catering kitchen), library, creche and complementary therapy room. This community-led facility provides a focal point for the local community, employment for local people and point people in the right direction for further training, advice and support.
The project directly addressed the core purpose of Strategic Objective 2: 'Addressing social, economic and environmental decline and disadvantage' by providing a new multi-purpose community learning facility accessible to all learners, on Grosvenor Road in the heart of St Pauls.
Children's Scrapstore - Centre for Creative Play
Service Provider: Children's Scrapstore
Project Outline: Objective 2 funding supported the Children's Scrapstore to purchase and refurbish a redundant building on Sevier Street in St Werburghs. The completed project now provides a stable, sustainable workspace and resources for community groups and social economy organisations to expand their capacity and develop new initiatives.
Scrapstore recycle unwanted materials from local businesses and redistribute them for use in creative play projects for children. Residents of the Objective 2 area are offered reduced rates at Scrapstore and free use of workshop space.
St Werburghs Gateway Enhancement Scheme
Service Provider: St Werburghs Gateway Enhancement Scheme
Project Outline:
Gatton Road is a residential street in St Werburghs that leads to an industrial estate and a scrap yard. Both Gatton Road and neighbouring Mina Road suffered from high levels of noise and atmospheric pollution, as a result of the volume of traffic accessing the Industrial Estate via Gatton Road and the close proximity of the M32.
This project involved the re-alignment of Gatton Road and its junction with Mina Road. A separate road to the industrial estate and scrap yard site was laid and a barrier wall with accompanying horticultural border was constructed, leaving the residential part of Gatton Road free from industrial traffic and debris.
The project also opened up a previously unused area of the industrial estate, with space for 14 new light industrial units.
Somerset Square Doorstep Green
Service Provider: Bristol City Council
Project Outline:
This project improved the features and landscape of Somerset Square, an underused area of open space in Redcliffe. The Square was previously used as a communal garden for local residents, but was judged to be of poor quality, lacking facilities and raising concerns amongst local residents about crime and personal safety.
This project funded the laying of new paths, planting flowers and shrubs, installing garden furniture and carrying out works to an existing monument.
Local residents got involved with the development and maintenance of the community garden, which has now been transformed into an attractive and safe facility for the whole community to use.
Circo In The Square
Service Provider: Circomedia
Project Outline: Founded in 1993 by Bim Mason and Helen Crocker, Circomedia’s reputation has grown rapidly, catapulting them to the forefront of Circus-with-Theatre training across the globe. An independent and friendly organisation, they started teaching their trade to aspiring circus performers in a modernised Victorian school building on the outskirts of Bristol.
In 2001, the Churches Conservation Trust was awarded £2.5m to restore St Paul’s Church for community use, and Circomedia were subsequently recommended for the 25-year lease with the aim of using the building as a circus skills training centre. The main part of the church houses a permanent full-scale flying trapeze rig, a sprung dance floor and two gymnastic tumble runs. Office space, meeting space, a training room and a café were also built and there is a gallery balcony for the public where they can sit and watch performers training.
The conversion of this building has won awards from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Georgian Group and Europa Nostra for its' sensitive conversion of a church building. More information is available on Circomedia's website.
Circomedia hope to transform the area around Portland Square and beyond, aiming to engage disaffected young people excluded from education, improve key skills and self esteem, reduce crime and promote a safer community for all.
St Paul's Community Wardens Project
Service Provider: Knightstone Housing Association
Project Outline: This is an extension of the original 'St Paul's Community Links Scheme,' which has improved the quality of life for local residents in St Paul's by reducing crime, improving the profile of the area and enhancing the appearance of the area. The project recruited a team of Community Wardens to provide a physical and conspicuous presence on the streets for advice, assistance and reassurance. The Wardens worked to enhance the environment, deter anti-social behaviour and support vulnerable members of the community.
Web: www.knightstone.co.uk
Stapleton Road and Old Market Project
Service Provider: Bristol East Side Traders
Project Outline: The project addressed the economic, social and environmental decline of Stapleton Road and Old Market through an integrated programme to boost business development and local job creation, improve road transport and pedestrian safety, reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and enhance the physical environment. The purpose of the project was to deliver an integrated package of measures that created attractive commercial districts that serve the needs of the local community and contribute to its sustained well-being.
The Redfield and Avonvale Road Improvement Scheme
Service Provider: Bristol Eastside Traders
Project Outline: This project addressed the economic, social and environmental decline of the major commercial centres in Lawrence Hill and Easton through an integrated programme that helped boost business development and local job creation, improved road transport and pedestrian safety, reduced crime and anti-social behaviour and enhanced the physical environment. It did this through an integrated programme that improved commercial building frontages, created new workspace, provided new Police Community Support Officers, enhanced the physical environment, improved public transport and upgraded cycle and pedestrian routes.
Reinforcing Eastside Regeneration
Service Provider: Bristol City Council
Project Outline: Reinforcing Eastside Regeneration used the framework for Bristol Legible City to develop and implement consistent, high quality information, signage and way-finding solutions that helped link the Stokes Croft / St Pauls area with the city centre and adjoining neighbourhoods and communities. The project addressed the needs of residents, businesses and visitors alike to help make the area more welcoming, easier to understand and to move around.
A number of factors had made Stokes Croft / St Pauls an inward looking and isolated area with a degraded public environment and poor physical connections to the city centre and adjoining areas. A primary objective for the regeneration of the area was to improve accessibility and information provision within the public realm to attract visitors, promote business and employment opportunities, and foster cross community interaction. Reinforcing Eastside Regeneration represents a means to raise awareness of the achievements of regeneration activity and enhance the image and perception of the area.
Access To Financial Services
Service Provider: Bristol Area Community Enterprise Network (BACEN)
Project Outline: This project saw the expansion of existing services and the introduction of new services but crucially supported the creation of one city-wide credit union which guarantees the long-term sustainability of credit unions. This project addressed the problems of a lack of access to mainstream financial services, lack of access to building banking and loans for sole traders, lack of access to sound, fair financial services and lack of access to financial services compliant with Islamic Law. The project also provided support to Money Go Round Credit Union Ltd and Bedminster and Knowle Credit Union Ltd. This project was the first time in the UK that a city-wide credit union has been borne from existing community-based credit unions.
Towards A Learning Community at Hannah More
Service Provider: Bristol City Council
Project Outline: The Objective 2 Action Plan contributed to the cost of constructing a multi-purpose community room, two training rooms, office facilities, library, shower facilities, additional office accommodation as well as running costs at Hannah More School. Environmental improvements were integrated into this project, and the Action Plan supported the provision of cycle facilities and cycleway improvements as well as additional security measures. In addition, 3 posts were created; an Extended Schools Manager, a community Facilities Manager, and a More for Kids Club Co-ordinator.
These comprehensive and integrated range of extended school facilities will be used by local agencies to provide job search and training opportunities for adults, including numeracy and literacy, ESOL, ICT, as well as courses on writing job applications, interview techniques, confidence building, etc. The new accommodation will also house an after-school club and holiday play scheme to enable parents/carers to access work and training opportunities.
“This is an amazing opportunity, providing community facilities, and pioneering the Extended Schools agenda.
The benefits to the wider community are very tangible. ESOL classes are already being provided at this brand new facility".
Julia Timlin, Head Teacher at Hannah More Primary School
Barton Hill Children's Centre
Service Provider: Bristol City Council
Project Outline:
This project provided extended school facilities and services at The New School and Childrens Centre, Barton Hill.
Employment and training support services was provided along with daycare for children of parents undertaking training, working, or moving towards work.
Part of the project included building a seminar room and a parents/community room for: employment and training support; Wraparound day care spaces (5–11yrs) and all day spaces (non-statutory 0-3 yrs) for parents accessing employment and training.
It also provided cycling facilities such as bike racks and showers, improved security, environmental improvements, office space for non-statutory staff and it contributed towards funding of a new reception area.
An Extended Schools Manager has been employed part-time as part of the project and they ensure the development and delivery of the extended schools services and activities.
- Contact: Mick Branaghan
- Tel: 0117 9223384
Trinity Centre Access to Training
Service Provider: Trinity Community Arts Ltd
Project Outline: This project has brought the upper floor of The Trinity Centre back into use.
Works to the centre included building the following facilities: A wheel chair accessible lift; training rooms and workspace facilities, including an exhibition hall; recording studio; multimedia suite and ICT training room; ICT, audio and multimedia infrastructure and facilities; improved toilet facilities; an upgrade to the electrics, ventilation, and heating systems.
The development of this building as a public space with disabled access improves the facilities for the whole community.
Babeco Back to Work
Service Provider: Babeco UK Ltd
Project Outline: Babeco is a Social Enterprise which manufactures reusable cotton nappies. The renewed popularity in cotton nappies is driven by a need to cut down on landfill and make additional environmental improvements. It provides a subsidised nappy laundering and raises awareness across the wards of Easton, Ashley, Windmill Hill and Lawrence Hill.
By offering low cost nappy laundering service it aims to encourage poorer households to use real nappies and thus divert 274 tonnes of nappy waste from landfill over the project lifetime.
It has created work placement opportunities for local people, and 14 salaried posts. For more details of Babeco's work, please see the Babeco website.
Archimedia Project
Service Provider: Leinster House Partnership Ltd
Project Outline: The Archimedia Project has created a building that allows the Knowle West Media Centre to increase capacity and provide space for enterprise through the provision of a modest amount of managed workspace. The building was built using ‘Modcell’ straw bale technology, it utilises a woodchip boiler, and harvests rainwater and solar energy to create an environmentally friendly building. The building has allowed the media centre to increase in capacity, house community organisations and provided space for enterprise, facilities for training, and be a flagship building for the local community.
The project focussed on creative digital industries supporting new media businesses, and has developed organisations in need of business support.
