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General Assembly 2008: Demand for the Parish Development Fund doubles

The General Assembly will hear that demand doubled supply for parish development funding for the first time ever this year. Such demand has led to the employment of additional staff, and the setting up of a Parish Development Fund team across the country.

The report stated that it was impossible to give applications the full amount they were seeking, but the team tried to assist as many schemes as they could:

"In each of the funding rounds in 2007 the amount of money requested was almost double the amount available.

"Faced with this dilemma the Committee took the decision that it would prefer to continue offering funds to all projects which merit an award rather than prioritise some at the expense of others.

" This has, of course, meant that few projects, if any, were granted the level of funding they requested."(p.5, para 12)

There was also a lot of emphasis placed on youth, and last September members of the Committee went to the Youth Assembly in Dundee.

There was a workshop for young people to hear more about the fund, and they were asked to come up with their own ideas for funding projects. A panel of experts scrutinized the proposals, in a format similar to the TV programme "Dragon's Den".

Staff at the conference felt this was most helpful:

"This was a very worthwhile exercise with the feedback from the discussions helping to inform the on-going work of the Fund in relation to supporting youth work." (p.5, para 11)

The fund was set up in 2003, and since then just over £3m has been granted to help parish based projects.

The team reminded the Assembly of its core values, and the difference it has been making to individual lives and communities:

"In a world increasingly dominated by statistics relating to outcomes, outputs, targets, and so on, it is easy to overlook the real stories of people whose lives have been transformed…. It is important to remember that at the heart of all the projects which the PDF supports are individuals." (p.6, para 2)

Ends.

Note to News Desks

A full copy of the report is available on our General Assembly pages online here.

GANR/23/04/2008

Tuesday 22, April 2008

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