FIVE community projects in Leicester will benefit from a share of £3million designed to help build skills, support local businesses, communities or places and provide employment support.
In the summer, Leicester City Council submitted the five bids from among 29 applications received from organisations seeking help from the Government’s Community Renewal Fund (CRF). This week it was announced that each of the bids had been successful.
The projects include:
Positive Communities – a voluntary and community sector partnership of 12 local organisations led by the Highfields-based Bangladesh Youth and Cultural Shomiti, working to support people into employment and developing new skills development. It received £584,230.
A community ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) scheme – aimed at improving language skills to help people into employment, led by Leicester-based Twin Employment and Training. It received £500,000.
The ‘She Inspired Business Playbox’ project – comprising five local voluntary and community sector organisations, which works to support women into employment and business. The project led by Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan Trust, a local organisation helping women to escape from poverty and abuse, was successful in its bid for £349,588.
Leicester Accelerator – a partnership of seven business support organisations led by East Midlands Chamber of Commerce also successfully bid for £1million of CRF funds, to fund a range of support programmes including use of digital technology, mentoring for businesses and grants.
Leicester Textiles Renewal – and integrated support programme including for skills, support for innovation and encouraging best practice within the city’s textile and garment industry. The bid, led by Leicester City Council, received £500,000 of CRF funding.
The city council was responsible for assessing the proposals, although to maintain fairness, none of the officers involved in the assessment were involved with any of the project proposals.
The bids must be delivered within the Government’s time frame by June 2022.
The CRF bid process is the latest stage of successful bidding by Leicester City Council for external funding to help the city’s economy and businesses recover from the disruption of Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020-21.
Leicester assistant city mayor responsible for jobs and skills, Cllr Danny Myers, said: “These projects will deliver some really innovative and much-needed projects across the city, which will form a key part of our work to help Leicester meet its potential as we recover from the impact of the pandemic.
“It was fantastic that last week we secured investment for brilliant, much-needed transport and workspace infrastructure projects. It’s another huge boost for Leicester that we have now secured funding that will support our businesses and residents – the social infrastructure if you like – that we need to make sure that the city’s future growth is fair, enjoyed by all and helps us meet our net zero ambitions.
“These projects are another example of Leicester’s council, businesses and voluntary organisations working together for the wider, long-term good of the city. These projects will be hugely important in helping Leicester’s businesses grow and helping people to access quality training and good jobs.”
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