Big Local Pathway
Big Local is an exciting opportunity for residents in 150 areas around England to use at least £1m to make a massive and lasting positive difference to their communities. To help make Big Local a success, there is clear set of steps that will guide us on our journey. We call this the Big Local pathway. The Big Local pathway has seven steps.
Getting people involved
The first stage is to spread the word about Big Local and make sure local residents know how they can get involved. This might include creating publicity material about Big Local, using networks of community members to spread the word, using existing local newsletters or events, and finding individuals and people working in local organisations who might be interested in playing a role.This is a crucial step in the pathway and one you need to spend some time on to get right. Getting people involved is an ongoing activity throughout Big Local so don't worry about speaking to absolutely everyone immediately; but do make sure you know who's in your area and how you can reach them.
Exploring your Big Local vision
This is about thinking through how your area might change for the better. What do people like now? What should change? What would people like to build on? What can you do to build on what is already good about your area and the existing talents, skills and abilities of people locally?
At this stage, not everyone's vision will be the same and the idea is not to arrive at a shared vision yet but simply to create a profile of your area (what your area is like now) and, importantly, to engage a wide range of people and groups about their hopes and visions for the future.
Click here to download the Grassland Hasmoor... Community Profile
Forming your Big Local partnership
Once visions have been collected, the next stage is to create a Big Local partnership to guide the overall direction of Big Local in your area and make sure a diverse range of residents and local organisations continue to be actively involved. All the work in steps one and two will have contributed to the development of this partnership.
The majority of members will be residents, but the partnership will probably include people from local organisations that are involved with your area as well. Membership of the partnership will change over time in response to your Big Local activities and it will be reviewed at least annually.
Creating a Big Local plan
The next thing to do is to move from a range of visions to a shared long-term vision and plan. Your plan needs to build on what is already good about your area, provide community-wide benefit, respond to local needs, and explain how you will meet Big Local's four outcomes. You have at least £1m funding and your plan will propose how best to use it over the 10 years and more.
Delivering your Big Local plan
Delivering your agreed plan will involve a range of activities, such as creating a small grants programme for your area, using 'social investment' loans, and paying for specialist services. If you don't understand what some of these things are then don't worry – your rep can help you, and there are explanations and guides on the Local Trust website.
Big Local partnerships will also decide whether there are suitable local trusted organisations who can administer the different types of funding, or whether they wish Local Trust to help.
Collecting the evidence
Local Trust wants to ensure that the
Big Local areas are able to learn from and adapt their activities as they go along. Assessing the impact of your activities involves looking at how your Big Local activities have changed things in your area, and reporting progress.
Local Trust will need to receive reports showing key activities, achievements and funding distributed. This will help you reflect upon how things are going and ensure that you make progress towards the outcomes in your 10-year plan. This will help Local Trust to share progress with the Big Lottery Fund.
Reviewing your Big Local plan and partnership
The Big Local partnership and Big Local plan will be reviewed annually. This will ensure open, critical reflection on how your partnership is working to achieve the outcomes set out in your plan. The review will check whether your plan remains relevant and continues to address your area’s priorities and is meeting the Big Local outcomes.
Click here to download the Grassland Hasmoor... Local Plan
