Capacity Building and Community Engagement - up to £3k available

​As you will be aware Burnley has been awarded £20 million through the Plan For Neighbourhoods programme to help shape Burnley's future - making it a thriving, inclusive town built around the needs and aspirations of its communities.   Locally this project's public facing brand will be:- Burnley Our Town Our Plan. 

​To help shape the vision for Burnley and determine the town's key priority areas for investment the Burnley Town Board are asking for your help to reach out into your respective communities to help raise awareness of the 10 year project and to re-affirm the priority areas that came out of the initial research carried out last summer, under the previous iteration called Long-Term Plan for Towns.
 
Whilst we did receive some proposals, the Town Board feel that there are many more opportunities out there to assist, and they wanted me to reach out again with some ideas of how you and your respective wider communities can get involved.   If you have already submitted a proposal, there is no need to do this again.
 
The Town Board are developing a number of tools to help you facilitate this work (including a digital quiz, a game of Jenga with questions on each piece, coloured counters/ping pong balls to stick in themed jars etc) and are keen to hear how you feel you might be able to help.  Listed below are some suggestions of ideas that you may be able to carry out, or indeed you may already have things going on that this work could be built into.   In addition, there is capacity funding available up to a maximum amount of £3,000 to help with these activities
 
Possible ideas include but are not limited to:- 

• sprucing up our town centre, public toilet refurbs, planting schemes, refreshing painting, tidying up other areas around town etc

• working with schools to create a video of a time machine looking at Burnley now and in 10 years' time

• attending school/college events to talk to parents

• litter picking/community clean ups

• arts/drama sessions - creating murals, or taking part in sculpture classes

• naming competitions

• community events/festivals

• field trips for community groups/schools around the town - what do people like/not like

• creative writing competitions based on themes - likes/dislikes and wants for the town

• drop ins, public realm pop-ups

 
Whilst there is a time constraint on this activity, the Board have extended the window for engagement & capacity building to the end of October 2025, as a first phase - please bear in mind that this is a 10-year project and community engagement activities & capacity building  will be on-going throughout, so there will be further opportunities. 
 
Interested? - e-mail a "plan on a page" (please no more than a page) covering the following headings:- 
 

• Who you are 

• What you do and who is your community

• How you can support delivering activities and raising brand awareness

• When you can carry these activities out - dates

• Where you will be able to do these activities - existing groups, community centres, schools etc 

• Costings of your activities - a clear structure showing the funding you are asking for, and how it will be spent

 
This must be received by 5 pm Friday 26th September 2025 in order to be considered. 
 
Please submit your "Plan on a Page" to:- [email protected]
 
If you have any questions or would like to talk ideas through, please contact Sam Smallridge on the above e-mail or 01282 475873
 
On behalf of the Burnley Town Board