Transforming Local Infrastructure

The Transforming Local Infrastructure programme - which was created by the Office for Civil Society and administered by The BIG Fund (the non-Lottery arm of the Big Lottery Fund) - focuses on improving the way that infrastructure services are delivered to frontline groups and individuals.

During the late summer of last year, BVSC worked to pull together a partnership of organisations to work on TLI, and to write a bid on behalf of this partnership. 

The members are:

  • BVSC
  • Birmingham & Black Country Community Foundation
  • Birmingham City Council
  • Birmingham Disability Resource Centre (BDRC)
  • Birmingham LGBT Community Trust
  • Birmingham Settlement
  • Birmingham Association of Youth Clubs (BAYC)
  • Birmingham Race Action Partnership (brap)
  • Business in the Community (BITC)
  • Castle Vale Community Regeneration Services
  • Castle Vale Tenants and Residents Alliance
  • Chamberlain Forum Limited
  • Community Network 4 Birmingham (CN4B)
  • Employment Needs Training Agency CIC (ENTA)
  • Initiative for Social Entrepreneurs C.I.C (i-SE)
  • South West Birmingham Community Association
  • St. Paul's Community Development Trust
  • The Birmingham Employment Skills & Training (BEST) Network
  • The Digbeth Trust
  • Women Acting in Today’s Society (WAITS)

The bid – which was for £595,000 over 18 months - focuses on five strands of activity:

Strand 1 - Peer Support

This will focus on enabling peer support and learning through a new Peer Support Programme that targets frontline groups and active citizens. Peer support priorities will include: maximising the use of emerging legislation and policy to strengthen neighbourhoods and create opportunities (e.g. Localism Act, Community Budgets, Community First panels etc); supporting enterprising behaviour and new business models; enabling cross-sector exchanges and relationships; and maximising opportunities for pro-bono and business mentoring/coaching.

Strand 2 - Co-ordinated Local Delivery

This will remove barriers to and reduce the number of routes to accessing support by establishing a co-ordinated group of providers who will pool their resources, staff, services, back offices, marketing efforts etc within an agreed framework to provide flexible, accessible and quality-accredited Integrated Support Hubs in five local neighbourhood venues, covering all localities in Birmingham between them.

Strand 3 - Shared Back Office Services

This will create a Back Office Shared Services network which enables partners to offer a greater volume of commercial back office services to frontline groups, jointly marketing and co-ordinating these to meet demand at reasonable cost whilst improving their own sustainability.

Strand 4 - Online support for enterprise and volunteering

This will dramatically improve reach, coverage and community 'connectivity' using new technology and mobile communications, including an Online Portal that enables diagnosis of support needs, user-rating of support providers, signposting and access to online tools and resources; augmenting support and expertise with new Mobile Applications (especially in the areas of enterprising business models; just-in-time volunteering; and new ways of fundraising and giving).

Strand 5 - Infrastructure endowment fund

This will utilise partners' expertise and specialisms to set up and run an Infrastructure Endowment Fund which enables private businesses, public agencies, civil society organisations and philanthropists/philanthropic institutions to support, invest in, endow or sponsor specific ‘infrastructure products’. Donations could be financial (“we’ll sponsor your social enterprise app”), in-kind (“we’ll ensure our middle managers provide coaching and mentoring to an agreed number of community activists”) or direct delivery (“we’ll deliver training on financial management to fledgling social entrepreneurs”).

The government has awarded us this grant through Transforming Local Infrastructure, which is being delivered by Big Fund, the non-lottery funding arm of the Big Lottery Fund. Transforming Local Infrastructure is providing better support for frontline civil society organisations by transforming local infrastructure services.