Warwickshire County Council has launched a new website and review document , dedicated to showcasing the progress made in the County as part of the UK Government’s Levelling Up initiative.
The Government has emphasised the importance of Levelling Up the country through its Levelling Up White Paper, detailing twelve national missions to address the causes of inequality and lack of social mobility with targets set for 2030. Eighteen months ago, Warwickshire County Council published the Countywide Approach to Levelling Up, translating the national policy into a local context, under the umbrella of ‘Creating Opportunities’, encompassing the work to date on both Levelling Up and Community Powered Warwickshire. Since the publication of the Countywide Approach, there have been a wide range of exciting projects across the county that have brought the national initiative to life.
To celebrate the embedding of a new approach across the county and with partners, a review has been published which highlights current successes and demonstrates how Levelling Up and Community Powered Warwickshire will work together going forward. The review document showcases local community projects funded by Warwickshire County Council’s Social Impact Fund and Green Shoots Community Fund and outlines live and future projects including three community powered place pilots. Alongside this, Warwickshire County Council is launching a new website to act as a digital home for Creating Opportunities work across Warwickshire that will provide updates on local projects and signpost to place based work taking place in the County.
For Warwickshire, Creating Opportunities is about recognising the different place-based needs across the County and supporting communities in a tailored way that will make the biggest impact. At the heart of this is empowering residents by involving communities in decision making; working alongside communities to take practical action; and enabling communities to lead. Through Creating Opportunities three pilot schemes were established: Barpool North and Crescents, Mancetter South and Ridge Lane as well as Lillington East, designed to test these community power principles.
The Social Impact Fund supported twenty-one organisations tackling inequality and improving social inclusion including Escape Community Arts in Action, the Parenting Project (Dads Matter) and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. There is now another fund open, the Social Fabric Fund, aiming to support communities build their own solutions, which totals £2.5 million split across revenue and capital funding. The fund is still open and expressions of interest are welcome.
Warwickshire County Council aims to be braver and maximise its enabling role to bring the VCSE, private and public sectors together to address the causes of inequality and lack of social mobility in some areas whilst ensuring that the work it does has added value to the wealth of activity already taking place.