Nothing beats a good ‘upgrade’

Be it decorating the house or a makeover at your favourite restaurant, there is nothing like seeing something rejuvenated with an injection of financial botox to put a smile on your face.

A £3 million budget will be used from a £15 million fund, for precisely that and will be managed by the Voluntary Community Unit of the Department for Social Development. An announcement was made recently that the £3 million will be used for the first 37 projects in the scheme.

There are 3 main areas that will be considered by the fund:-

Very much in line with Ministerial priorities, this will meet the Minister’s aims to ‘build communities and encourage social responsibility’. The Minister reiterated what she wants communities to use the £3 million for, during a recent visit to Dunsford in her native Co Down. She will be looking forward to visiting some of the projects in the future to see how the tax payers hard earned is being spent.

There is a real feel good factor about change. It’s a bit like summer and Christmas, people tend to be in good form generally. To see such an investment in local facilities encourages commitment from those who give up their time willingly and freely to help build better communities.

Having a Minister who knows what the people want, supports what the people want and finances what the people need, can only increase the interest in voluntary commitment to the community as well as enhancing the local area.

Voluntary workers are our unsung heroes. Many efforts are being made to ensure their work is acknowledged by people throughout the country. In May 2008 as the Minister launched Volunteers week in Parliament Buildings she referred to volunteering as ‘…a cornerstone of our society and the lifeblood of our communities’.

Our cities and towns have benefited greatly from various Masterplans that have been launched. The publicity alone has got people talking about their towns and cities. They might not like it, there again, they may love it, it stimulates debate and gets people interested. Funding generates publicity, publicity generates interest and interest can often place what appears to be a somewhat boring topic right into the living room of every home in the country.

This funding for the Voluntary and Community sector will be good for our communities. At least 70 projects are expected to benefit greatly. It will make a difference, it will harness resources in a way which has maximum impact and the Minister has made it clear that she wants to work with the local communities to achieve that.