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Sign the petition to save the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme!

(09/03/10)

This major source of funding is due to end on 31st March 2011. The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS)enables listed places of worship to claim back 100% of VAT incurred on repairs and maintenance to the building, professional fees and repair works to fixtures such as bells and organs.

 

The LPWGS has provided great relief to places of worship faced with raising enormous sums for maintenance and repair, and has enabled those who look after these valuable heritage and community buildings to maintain them for future generations. 


The Scheme was introduced in April 2001 and to date has paid out over £100 million to places of worship across the United Kingdom.  

 

The scheme is due to come to an end on 31st March 2011

 

Please support the campaign to extend the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, beyond March 2011, by sending a letter to your MP.

 

A suggested draft is downloadable here :-

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme letter

 

and signing the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/VAT-refundscheme/

Manifesto out now!

(04/03/10)

The Places of Worship @ The Heritage Alliance Manifesto was launched this morning at St. Gabriel's Church, Pimlico, London. The manifesto sets out why historic places of worship are important to the nation and what government can do to ensure local communities retain the ability to maintain their building and increase its potential.

 

There are 14,500 places of worship in England listed for their special architectural or historic interest, 85% of which belong to the Church of England.

 

These places of worship are nationally important landmarks, repositories of social history, spaces for quiet reflection, community buildings and architectural gems; they are run, maintained and paid for by local people. However the reduction in public funding has left many congregations struggling to maintain their building.

 

POW Alliance is the action-oriented national forum representing all key charitable organisations in the sector and designed to strengthen the voice of historic places of worship in national debates.

 

The POW Alliance Manifesto aims to raise the profile of historic places of worship and the issue of their care and calls for the continuation of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme beyond March 2011.

 

Download the Manifesto-PoW@The Heritage Alliance Manifesto

 

Download the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme campaign letter - Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme letter


Transitional Grant Aid relief ending March 2011

(16/02/10)

In addition to the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme another source of funding for church buildings - the transitional relief on Grant Aid - is due to come to an end in 2011.

 

Churches and other charities making Gift Aid repayment claims are currently entitled to Gift Aid transitional relief on qualifying donations: instead of being repaid standard rate income tax at 20p, they are still repaid at the old rate of 22p.

 

We know what the LPWGS has contributed significantly to Churches. It is much more difficult to estimate the impact of the loss of Gift Aid transitional relief. However, it is estimated that from the loss of Gift Aid relief the Church of England alone will lose some £7 to £8 million a year.

 

Unfortunately the transitional Gift Aid relief will not be extended but discussions are currently ongoing within the voluntary sector about improving the operation of the Gift Aid Scheme.


Heritage Lottery Fund's new Skills for the Future programme opens

(17/12/09)

This new £5million grant programme will deliver up to 1,000 paid training opportunities for people across the UK seeking a career in heritage. It will not only support traditional conservation training but also a wide variety of skills needed to engage people with heritage and utilise new media and technology.

 

Skills for the Future will help equip organisations to engage with the widest possible range of people and inspire them to get involved with heritage.  Its focus is on vocational learning.  It will train people in how to best work with families, schools, young people and communities and teach the skills needed to use new technology to bring heritage sites and collections alive for new audiences.  Skills for the Future will also help meet the skills gaps identified by heritage conservation bodies.

 

Organisations will be able to apply for funding - from £100,000 to £1million - for a number of traineeships over a period of up to five years with an emphasis on high-quality work-based training.  There is only one opportunity to apply and the closing date is 19 March 2010 with awards being made in May 2010. 

 

For more information visit http://www.hlf.org.uk/


Ten Years On: the new report by Susan Rowe

(14/12/09)

A Review of the Millennium Commission Funded Rural Churches in Community Service Programme

The Rural Churches in Community Service (RCCS) programme, funded by the Millennium Commission, ran from 1998 to 2001 and assisted 99 churches, in rural areas throughout the UK, to develop community projects in church buildings. In 2003 a review of the projects developed within Anglican churches in England was under taken. This 2009 study has reviewed the 59 churches from the 2003 review with regard to achievement against their original aims and their performance in 2003. The review considers the impact of community use on the wider community and on the church; it has tried to establish what makes projects sustainable.

 

Click here to download the full report - Ten Years On: Susan Rowe

 


A community development approach to the use of Church Buildings: A New Toolkit Launched

(24/11/09)

Hereford Diocese has launched a new toolkit for churches who wish to open up their buildings for wider community use.

The conference held in Hereford on 19 November 2009 was a great success. Over 200 people from across the country attended coming from individual churches, dioceses, local authorities, health trusts, rural community councils, voluntary sector, the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage. The main event was the launch of a new Toolkit which takes churches through the whole process of opening up their church for wider community use. This was commissioned by the Diocese of Hereford, supported and with input from the Shropshire Rural Community Council and Hereford Council.

As well as four workshops looking at some of the practical guidance contained within the Tookkit and also two site visits to two success stories, there were also presentations from the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, English Heritage, and the Department of Communities and Local Government. There was also a report back on the recent review of the Rural Churches in Community Service Programme Ten Years On.

The Toolkit and all the presentations can be downloaded from the Diocese of Hereford website:
http://www.hereford.anglican.org/churchgoers/
community_partnership_and_funding/
about_us_and_latest_news/toolkit.aspx

The Toolkit is helpfully broken down into sections so no one has to download the whole Toolkit in one go.

There was also a DVD which features people from four Hereford villages, Peterstow, Peterchurch, Yarpole and Bridge Sollars talking about their particular projects in their historic churches and how they did it! These four churches between them now house, within their building, a branch library, a community shop, and a Childrens' Service Centre as well as numerous other community activities and other local authority services.  The DVD should be available to all who are interested shortly, Just keep an eye on the website.


Cathedral Camps Looking for Churches

(17/11/09)

In 2008 Cathedral Camps set up the ReFresh Project as a means of diversifying the type of buildings and the types of volunteers the charity works with. It is a programme of one-day volunteering events in faith buildings across England, for 16 to 25 year olds, combining the expertise of the Cathedral Camp week long residentials, with the flexibility required by smaller venues

 

The project seeks to involve local communities in volunteering within their local faith buildings as a means of building community relations and engaging local youth; moving beyond the traditional model of large Cathedrals and residentials and working with smaller churches and buildings of other faiths.

The volunteering projects are practical heritage based, and range from graveyard mapping, painting railings and community rooms, polishing brass or a marble floor, to litter picking or creating an eco-diverse area in graveyards and clearing cellars. 

 

The project works with a diverse range of young people; from University conservation groups to local youth offending teams. They work with the venues to target groups in the local community they would like to engage with, enabling them to open their doors to a range of people who might previously have felt excluded or simply uninterested. The volunteers gain first hand practical experience and develop skills as well as making new friends and being introduced to buildings in their community they might not have previously entered.

 

The ReFresh coordinator will liaise with the venue and the young people to find a date which works for both parties. They will also work with the venue to design a set of projects which the volunteers will be able to carry out. The coordinator will conduct a risk assessment of the venue and the activities involved, and will provide the necessary health & safety talk at the start of each day of volunteering. Each volunteering day will be coordinated and supervised by a ReFresh member of staff or trained volunteer leader.

These are primarily run one off one-day events; however, if you have a longer term project you need help with or a series or projects, ReFresh are keen to build relationships with venues that will allow them to develop lasting relationships with them and their local youth community. 

Youth volunteering has never been so popular - why not take advantage of the wonderful energy that is out there and invite some in to make a difference at your venue?!

If you are interested please contact: Rebecca Wilkinson telephone: 0207 643 1412 or email: rwilkinson@csv.org.uk

or go to the website:  

http://www.cathedralcamps.org.uk/refresh.htm

 


Community Cashback

(02/07/09)

New Community Cashback Scheme

This is a new scheme called Community Cashback billed as giving 'local people a say in how £4 million of recovered criminal assets should be spent in their communities'.  For more information go to http://cashback.cjsonline.gov.uk/

 

The projects should be related to nuisance, anti-social or criminal behaviour or its impact on the community:

The Church/churches are community bodies but will need to identify projects which deliver on the above, e.g: restoring/creating a wildlife friendly churchyard where it has been subject to vandalism etc might work well.






Supported by Ecclesiastical Insurance Group