Business in Bracknell - Bracknell Forest Community Fund Hits the Ground Running

The Bracknell Forest Partnership was delighted to launch the innovative new Bracknell Forest Community Fund last Friday, 30 March.

The event, supported by the Mayor of Bracknell Forest, Andrew MacKay MP and John Nike, was extremely well attended with over 80 representatives from a cross section of local business, voluntary groups, Bracknell councillors and Berkshire Community Foundation trustees.

The new Fund heralds a tremendous day for the Bracknell area. It will potentially provide funding for many small Bracknell Forest voluntary groups, which are finding it increasingly difficult to get funds from other sources.

The Partnership would particularly like to thank Panasonic for its support from the very start, for hosting the launch as well as generously kick-starting the Fund with the first donation of £5,000, handed over by Kelly Hales from Panasonic at the event.

In the six months prior to the launch of the new Fund, the Berkshire Community Foundation has issued over £50,000 in grants to local groups in the area, including Holly House Tenants Association, Bracknell CAB, Indian Community Festival, The Ark Trust and The Children’s Information Centre. Despite this, it is facing a large increase in demand.

The Partnership has committed to raise £250,000 over the next three years to help meet growing demand. The new Fund comes at a time when many small voluntary groups are facing closure due to lack of funding. For instance, The Berkshire Disability Information Network (BDIN) was forced to close at the end of March due to drastic cuts in local authority funding. It is hoped that the new fund will, in the future, help to ensure that groups such as the BDIN continue to operate and provide vital services for the community.

Small voluntary community groups are crucial in creating and maintaining the cohesion of communities and rely on funding predominantly from grants or donations to stay operational. To these small groups, a donation of as little as £300 can make a huge difference to the recipients. The Bracknell Forest Fund will focus on this sector.

The concept, like the Community Foundation itself, is to build a permanent source of funding for local groups, from which the interest is used to make grants. As the fund grows so it will provide more interest and thereby more grants. In essence it is building a legacy for Bracknell Forest.

The Berkshire Community Foundation is facing increasing pressure for its grants as small groups face greater difficulties in raising funds. The Fund will only work if the entire community gets behind it and gives it their support with companies and individuals committing to providing donations over the coming years.

Councillor Ian Leake, who is chairing Bracknell Forest Community Fund Committee, summed up the event by saying: “This day has only been possible with the support and effort of all those involved at both the Bracknell Forest Partnership and the Community Foundation.

“The Bracknell Forest Community Fund will provide a means in which both companies and individuals are able to make a lasting impact in their local community. I have a vision in which Bracknell Forest will become widely known as a community that helps itself, and in doing so creating the blueprint that the other five unitary councils in Berkshire are able to follow to ensure that the funding gets through to those in need.

“Together we can really make this work for the benefit of the local community”.

For more information on the Fund event, please contact:

Caroline Yeoman
Berkshire Community Foundation Press Office
Tel: 01753 844100
E-mail: caroline.yeoman@barretthowe.com

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