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VIllage SOS Active Campaign |
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Thursday, 11 August 2011 14:42 |
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A campaign to help communities buck the trend of rural decline and revive village life by starting up new business ventures has been launched by the Big Lottery Fund.
The Village SOS Active Campaign will give around 250 awards of between £10,000 and £30,000 to kick start community businesses that bring people together in villages across the UK and support activities and enterprises that will tackle the challenges they face.
In order to be eligible for a grant you must be a community enterprise and be in a rural village with less than 3000 people living in it. Only one entry will be accepted per village.
Central to Village SOS Active is the www.villagesos.org.uk website, which offers a range of tools and information to help people bring their ideas for community business to life. It also enables people to share advice and first-hand experience through an online community network where people can discuss ideas and share solutions to common issues.
The website is backed up by the Village SOS Advice Line, which is a single port of call for any question about setting up or running a community business in the UK. For free expert guidance call 0845 434 9123 or email
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The launch of the campaign coincides with a prime-time TV series on BBC ONE following the journeys of six UK villages, who received a £400,000 Big Lottery Fund grant each to set up a new community run business to rejuvenate their local area. Village SOS, which started at 8pm on BBC ONE on Wednesday 10th August, shows what can be achieved when rural communities come together.
If you missed the first episode it is available on the BBC iPlayer here.
Community Action Northumberland will be supporting Village SOS through ACRE, our umbrella body, any organisations interested in applying should go through the Village SOS website or helpline in the first instance.
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