Disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Birmingham & West Midlands to get £400k investment

Eight community organisations in disadvanted areas of the West Midlands are set to receive £400,000 of new funding to help their communities.

The funding comes from the Commonwealth Games legacy pot, issued by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). The money will be used for new community facilities or services, regular events to improve health and wellbeing, or education and training opportunities.

Two social enterprises in Birmingham, one in Solihull and one in Sandwell are also included. The eight social enterprises chosen by the WMCA to draw up the plans, are:

• Birmingham - Witton Lodge Community Association
• Birmingham – iSE (Initiative for Social Entrepreneurs)
• Coventry - Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative Development Agency (CWCDA)
• Dudley - Provision House
• Sandwell - Skills Work and Enterprise Development Agency (SWEDA)
• Solihull - Colebridge Trust
• Walsall – Urban Hax
• Wolverhampton - Access to Business

The investment by the WMCA is part of a £2 million plan to grow the social economy. The Wolverhampton cluster will be led by Access to Business, a charity that supports local people into work and delivers services to local start-ups and SMEs to support them to develop and grow.

What's been said about the project?

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMCA chair, said: “Across the region we have around 10,000 social economy businesses and organisations providing valuable jobs, training, housing and other services which are being delivered by local people for the benefit of local people. These are underpinned by a central aim of doing good for their communities.

“This is why, as part of our plan to use Commonwealth Games legacy cash to help widen their impact, we’ve decided to put money directly into their hands to support them to identify and deliver even more ways in which they can make a positive difference to the lives and futures of local people.