Connect One Blackpool: Phase One

Awards For All Grant From Big Lottery Fund.

December 2015 to July 2016

One Blackpool won an Awards for All grant for creating the first phase of the Connect One Blackpool service exchange.

We knew community groups needed more than just money and that they needed the expertise and experience only local responsible businesses could provide. This project endeavoured to recruit businesses and community groups to join us free so we could make that connection.

We worked in partnership with local businesses to help demonstrate their CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR). Often they were unsure of where to go and who wanted their help. We introduced them to local voluntary and community organisations that we thought were a good match.

This 12 month project was completed with support from the National Lottery and focused on engaging the local private sector with physical and practical resources to build the capacity of the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sectors. It has helped social organisations to continue delivering much needed frontline services to residents across the Fylde coast. It has also encouraged business leaders to connect with communities by signing up to this initiative. These companies have agreed to help in a number of ways:

• Volunteer trustees/board members

• Sponsorship
• Business mentors
• Partnership opportunities

• Sharing of resources
• Placement opportunities

Our thanks goes out to Ian Fogg (pictured) and his successor Andy Charles from Business in the Community (BITC) for all the good work they’ve been doing across Blackpool and the Fylde. BITC is a British business-community outreach charity promoting responsible business with corporate social responsibility (CSR), and is one of Prince Charles’s Charities. It has inspired OB to reach out to smaller organisations who are under the radar. Ian has since joined our board and is actively involved in OB projects.