New advice and funding to help create job and training opportunities in rural areas

As you’ll know, the total number of unemployed people in the UK is now at 2.49 million. Unemployment is a particular problem for rural areas, where the lack or loss of services like shops, cafes, or pubs means fewer employment opportunities, undermining community life and driving the younger generation away from the areas in which they were born. 

But many communities are finding ways round the problem of unemployment by turning to enterprise; many are setting up community-owned shops, cafes, pubs, transport schemes or food and farming projects. Community enterprises like these provide much-needed job and training opportunities for all members of the community, regardless of their age, experience or skills. Communities are now being urged to take advantage of new support that has been launched to help more communities set up enterprises in their area, and we’re urging people with an enterprising idea to contact us to take advantage of this support, the likes of which has never been available before. Village SOS Active is a new campaign by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) in collaboration with rural communities charity the Plunkett Foundation and its partners, which sees rural communities being offered advice and support on a level never before seen.  

 

The campaign includes:

• A UK-wide advice line to help people in rural areas looking to set up and run new community enterprises, pooling the UK’s leading rural, social enterprise and co-operative experts; 
• A series of 24 events, taking place twice in every region of England, two in Wales, and one each in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

These will give people hands-on, practical advice and the chance to hear from inspirational examples Alongside this support, the Big Lottery Fund has also set up a £5m funding competition that communities can enter for a chance to win a Lottery award to kick start their enterprises. The awards will be in the region of £10,000 and £30,000 per enterprise.  

The three steps for getting help with setting up a community enterprise are: 

1. Go to www.villagesos.org.uk and register your details. 

2. Call the Advice Line on 0845 434 9123 

3. Come along to one of the UK wide road show events. 

Village SOS Active is a campaign by the Big Lottery Fund which is being delivered with rural communities charity the Plunkett Foundation, in partnership with Co-operatives UK, Locality, and Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE). It was launched on 10th August 2011 as part of the BBC six-part series, Village SOS, which follows the journey of six villages as they use a Big Lottery Fund grants to set up a new community enterprise. The campaign will see dedicated expert advisers provide support and guidance to people inspired by the BBC1 series to set up and run their own community enterprises, from shops and pubs to broadband services and transport systems.