We are delighted that the Big Lottery Fund Reaching Communities programme has awarded Dorset Community Action £348,025 in support of PULM’s On The Edge – Making a Mark Through Community Action project. The project is about improving community spirit and the well-being of the 8000 residents who make Upton and Lytchett Minster the second largest town in Purbeck District. The bid was developed on the back of the Town Plan, which was itself put together from the bottom up, based on views and concerns of local people gathered by the Plan for Upton and Lytchett Minster Group after extensive surveys and consultation.
The existence of the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme as part of People Powered Change gives us a chance to do something about a number of areas which need improvement. Among the problems here are a lack of facilities and services, various forms of disadvantage and the traffic passing through the town. The town already has a number of action groups – Youth United, Keep Upton Tidy and the Mature Residents’ Action Group for example, and the project is designed to build on these and the other similar activities in the Town and the spirit which supports them. And despite a very positive feeling of friendliness in the town, in a survey last year 33% of residents said they did not feel part of the community and lacked ‘a sense of belonging’. We believe that improving the situation needs recognition of something local people have long felt - that our town has missed out in all sorts of ways because it is “On The Edge”: on the edge of Dorset, on the edge of Poole, on the edge of people’s view when it comes to the allocation of public funding, and on the edge as far as the Media is concerned. In this respect, one aim of the project is to raise our public profile
What does this mean on the ground?
- The appointment of a full-time Action Co-ordinator to encourage and support voluntary activity in the town.
- Practical action in the form of nearly 30 individual projects ranging from road safety to the environment to a local
food market and putting on larger-scale community events.
- An emphasis on encouragement and support for existing community groups in the town by way of a
‘Community Action Network
- A ‘Community Hub’ space as a base for the Project
- A special study on the way public services are allocated which it is hoped will benefit other areas in the future.
The areas the Project will address are:
1. Town Identity and Information Schemes
2. Environmental Schemes
3. Families and Children Action
4. Young People Schemes – ‘Somewhere to go, something to do’
5. Mature Residents Schemes
6. Road Safety Schemes
7. Development of Community Spirit development Events Schemes
We see this Lottery Grant as a huge opportunity for this town - to try to deal with some of its problems, to build up community life, and make as much as possible of its potential. We look forward to hearing from the residents of Upton and Lytchett Minster with a view to getting involved with this project.