Meeting the need

The Big Lottery fund asked us:

How will your project meet the need you have identified?

We responded as follows:

Filling the existing gaps in provision

The Family Building Club project will fill the following gaps in provision in Swansea:

1. Shortage of family learning other than that based on Family Literacy and Family Numeracy.

2. Lack of opportunity for children and adults to develop basic building-related skills.

Helping those most in need

a. By delivering family learning programmes in Penlan, the programme will help families in an area of severe deprivation.

b. The other two delivery locations, Mumbles and Brynhyfryd, are not as deprived, but their catchment areas do include communities which have below average levels of deprivation on a UK scale.

c. It is essential to include Mumbles as one of the three delivery locations. In this location, we have a large team of Church Members, who have the knowledge and skills to plan and deliver the project effectively. It will also be necessary to deliver each project first in Mumbles, so that it can be proven in use and then fine-tuned before being delivered in the other two, more difficult, locations.

d. We also propose to charge a fee of £1 per person for all families attending the Family Building Club in Mumbles. This will help offset the total cost of the project, and increase the possibility that we can continue the project at all three locations once the three years of Lottery funding is complete.

Helping people to take part in running the project

a. From past experience, it is not possible to include volunteers in delivering technology-related family learning activities. These can only realistically be delivered by a highly-skilled, well-trained and experienced team of paid staff.

b. Nevertheless, delivering activities to families does give significant opportunities for participants to be involved in providing feedback, and in helping staff to plan and develop future activities. For instance, we anticipate that a number of the projects available in the second and third years will have been proposed by participants in the first year.

c. Also, if the project does identify any people who are willing to participate in community activities on a voluntary basis, we will pass their details into the appropriate structures for volunteering through the Community First Team.

Making the communities better places to live

a. Research shows that successful and regular family learning programmes brings significant educational and community benefits.

b. In particularly, Family learning in a community setting can increase cooperation between local families, and strengthen community links.