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Dene Valley Community Partnership

Grant Recipient Gains National Award for Urban Regeneration

Representatives from Dene Valley Community Partnership recently attended a prestigious award ceremony held by the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA). Each year BURA aims to recognise the involvement of local people as equal partners in development and implementation of regeneration programmes by recognising the positive impact of community inspired regeneration schemes on people’s lives.

Margaret Ingledow giving a speech Dene Valley Partnership won the award for it’s work, inspired by the community, which raises community spirit and most importantly improves the quality of life for local people. During the selection process panel members from BURA visited the project and were impressed by the determination and independence of those involved and by the degree to which the partnership responds to local needs.

Dene Valley Community Partnership is a community resource centre or ‘One Stop Shop’ set up in March 1999. The group aims to promote rural regeneration in the villages of Dene Valley, an area that is within the top 20-30% most deprived wards nationally. They are based in a community centre and offer training, a breakfast club, a community café, advice and signposting facilities. They also offer children’s facilities, meeting rooms, IT suite and multi-purpose activity all with fully disabled access. Every 6-8 weeks they meet with the public to discuss the development of the project and ask for suggestions and ways to improve the service.

We also recognised the potential of this group when they first applied to us for funding back in 2000. Even in these early stages their enthusiasm for improvement was astounding and since then the group have received over £50,000 in funding towards various community projects and schemes.

Over the years these have included:

Refurbishment of the ‘One Stop Shop’
Creation of a community park in Coundon Grange.
Developing a range of after-school sports for 15 to 17 year olds.
Producing a quarterly newsletter to keep residents informed of their progress.
Courses on self-esteem and confidence building and equal opportunities for the community to attend.
Training courses for committee members and volunteers to enhance the capacity of the group. Courses have included basic food hygiene, minute taking, fundraising and event management, charity law and interview techniques.

Margaret Ingledow of the Partnership commented,

"The Partnership has been very fortunate to secure grants from The County Durham Foundation which have contributed to our success in our regeneration projects and also in our winning the award from BURA. I would like to thank The County Durham Foundation trustees and staff for all of their help which is greatly appreciated."

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