Christian group wins grant to develop faith-based regional networks

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 10 Oct 2008

A Christian organisation has won a five-year grant from the Big Lottery Fund to help regional and hard-to-reach faith-based organisations better communicate their benefits and needs to regional governments in England.

Faithworks, a Christian movement comprising churches, individuals and organisations, has been awarded the grant, worth £950,000 over the five years, to carry out the Regional Networks Support project. The programme is set to kick off next year.

Jenny Seal, a spokeswoman for Faithworks, said that Regional Networks Support is designed to “give the faith sector a bigger voice in different areas of regional policy”.

“It’s about showing what faith groups are doing and contributing to their regions,” she said. The project, she said, had come about to address the difficulties encountered by some regional governments in reaching faith organisations.

Bring faith groups into regional policy-making

Rev Malcolm Duncan, leader of Faithworks, told Charity News Alert: “The main purpose of the project is to strengthen the infrastructure of faith groups on the ground to have their voice heard and to engage with regional policy. It’s about advocacy and enabling local groups to work together, to share their resources better, to understand better the implications of regional policy and be able to make a joined-up, partnership-led response.”

Rev Duncan said he hoped the partnership would allow charities to “hopefully engage more fully and effectively with regional policy-making”.

The organisation is currently open for tender for organisations to become regional partners, responsible for the establishment of networks of faith organisations in each of the nine English government regions.

Requirements outlined on the Faithworks website indicate that a faith group has to be “working in the Christian faith sector” and have a collaborative relationship with other faiths. Rev Duncan says that any faith group may apply to become a regional partner, so long as they are “in sympathy with the ethos and values of Faithworks”.

The deadline for applications to become a regional partner is 8 October.

Who's Who: Celina Ribeiro

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