Innovation Exchange

Trafford Council has opened up a funding opportunity for community and voluntary sector projects that benefit adults with learning disabilities in Trafford.

The Learning Disability Development Fund Innovation Grant was so successful last year that they are running the grant again this year!

In order to further develop the market in Trafford for adults with learning disabilities, they are asking for bids between £500 and £40,000 to fund innovative pilots that:

• Support the development of support groups and user led groups to services to people with learning disabilities from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities
• Support development of Social Enterprise for Adults with learning disabilities and/or Autism
• Support increased participation in community life for people with complex needs and/or profound disabilities
• Provide meaningful learning opportunities which increase independence
• Provide Innovative short break options which are cost effective

If you have an idea that will help people with learning disabilities become active, visible citizens Trafford Council want to hear from you! They will also give consideration to projects that support Trafford’s Preventative agenda.

The deadline for bids is 6th September 2010, if you want to discuss any ideas before you submit a bid please feel free to contact at jenny.yates@Trafford.gov.uk or call her on 0161 912 1357.

Good luck!

MyBnk are an award winning education charity working with young people to build the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their money effectively and make enterprising choices throughout their lives. Their programmes include the first ever FSA approved banking scheme run by young people for young people, providing an accessible place to save regularly and interest free loans to set up enterprises.

Their education programmes have shown great results here in London and they want them to reach as many young people as possible. Therefore, they’re embarking on a social franchise of MyBnk’s programmes, enabling partner organisations across the UK to deliver our education programmes to young people in their community. They are able to offer a full package of training and ongoing support, as well as some seed funding to a partner organisation in the North West to be our first partner – paving the way for many more!

The deadline for applications to be their first partner is 10 September 2010. For more information and to request an application pack please contact Melanie Robinson on 020 7377 8770 or email melanie@mybnk.org.

At our Festival of Ideas last week, the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, talked about making a reality of the Big Society. That’s exactly what our event seemed to do, bringing together voluntary and community sector innovations with the potential to green public services with the investors and commissioners who are searching for them.

The event certainly seems to have been a success, with a satisfaction rate of over 75% and most people meeting more than 5 people with whom it would be useful to be in further contact. The vast majority of innovators found that the event helped to generate significant interest in their work and the vast majority of social investors and public service commissioners identified projects that could help them meet their objectives. Over the next few months, we will be following up these connections as rigorously as we can.

The event showcased 8 high-potential projects that we encourage you to learn about and connect with. You can see presentations on their work below and videos of each project talking about their work here.  A short film of the day will also follow in due course.

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The Centre for Alternative Technology has launched zerocarbonbritain2030 (ZCB2030), a titanic project showing one possible route to an entirely carbon-neutral UK by 2030.  This ambitious and hefty report covers the systemic change needed across energy, transport, land use, the built environment and industry.  Each of the chapters of has been written by a collaboration of UK’s leading thinkers in their field including policy makers, scientists, academics, industry and NGOs.

A carbon neutral UK may seem an ambitious target, but it is something others around the world are pursuing.  Seattle City Council has included it in their legislative priorities this year; and Copenhagen and New Zealand are working towards this goal.

You can download the full PDF report here.

One of the most interesting areas in the report is the crucial role of behaviour change in zerocarbonbritain2030.  The herculean effort necessary requires a huge change to the majority of people’s lifestyles, for example reducing the amount of meat we eat by 20%.  Other than including an extensive theoretical chapter  about behaviour change, the report does not forward many policies or proposals to actually create this kind of collective action and mass behaviour change. 

Innovation Exchange hopes to support high-potential third sector innovations that can help to reduce carbon emissions or build society’s capacity to reduce carbon emissions. Through our Green Next Practice programme.  Behaviour change will be a huge part of this undertaking.  At our Going Green: Festival of Ideas we heard form a range of projects that simultaneously aim to green public services and manage to do so in an engaging way so that individual consumers can make the connection between their behaviour and environmental degradation without feeling lectured.  For example, Carbon Conversations is an inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living. It was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best climate change solutions.

The six 2-hour meetings engage people both emotionally and practically, helping them overcome the barriers often associated with making large carbon reductions. Members explore the basic climate change problem, their responses to it, their ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption. Most members make reductions of 1 tonne CO2 during the course and develop plans to halve their footprints over a longer period.

We would like to thank all applicants who responded to the Call for Ideas in relation to the Green Next Practice programme. We are impressed by the strength and enthusiasm of the third sector to support public services in reducing their carbon emissions. We hope that applicants who didn’t make to the next stage will remain engaged with the programme – we would certainly be interested in hearing about your progression.

We are now looking forward to holding our Going Green: A Festival of Ideas event with the shortlisted applicants – so watch the space!