About us

About Devonshire West Big Local

£1m / 10 years / our community

Devonshire West Big Local is a resident run, lottery funded organisation which aims to make Devonshire West a better place to live and work.

In 2012 the Big Lottery Fund provided Devonshire West Big Local with £1 million to spend over 10 years to better our community.

Where is Devonshire West?

In the heart of Eastbourne, East Sussex, Devonshire West is about half of the Devonshire ward. It runs from Beamsley Road to Terminus Road along the seafront, back as far as the railway line and under the curve of Whitley Road.

What is Big Local?

Big Local, run by Local Trust, is working with the Big Lottery Fund to help people to m

ake massive, lasting and positive differences in their own communities. Devonshire West is one of 150 areas around England that have been allocated £1m over a ten year period to make their area an even better place to live.

Big Local has four key aims:

• Communities will be able to identify local needs and take action in response to them.

• People will have increased skills and confidence, so that they can continue to identify and respond to need in the future.

• The community will make a difference to the needs it prioritises.

• People will feel that their area is an even better place to live.

Devonshire West, like all the other areas, will progress through a seven stage Big Local Pathway over the duration of the project.

Residents are at the heart of the process: through a series of consultation events, all the suggestions have been collected from local people.

Originally, the project was managed by an Interim Planning Group made up of community volunteers and representatives from a few key organisations. It is now managed by an elected Board, with significant support from a wide range of local people.

There is a requirement that residents are in the majority on the Devonshire West Big Local Board, and this is the body that is responsible for implementing how the £1m will be spent.

The group has always adopted an open approach to their work and welcome more volunteers. If you are interested in getting involved, please get in touch.

What it is NOT…

It’s NOT the council, local authority or government or telling people what to do.

It’s NOT about individual groups fixing their favourite problem without talking to a wide range of different people who live and work in the community.
It’s NOT short-term – 10 years or more to plan and deliver the best options for the area.

Who is Involved?

The Board

Currently, the Board comprises of the following members:

Vacancy – Chair
Amy Hope – Vice-Chair and experienced fundraiser & community worker
Adrian Ley – Treasurer, resident and member of Devonshire Collective and Eastbourne Blind Society
Jim Boot – Local Trust Rep (non-voting)
Miriam Wilkinson – 3VA, representing our Locally Trusted Organisation (non-voting)
Jon Chapman – Involved with number of local community initiatives
Jane Dubery – Resident
Graham Button – Resident and member of Friends of Seaside Rec
Brian Lawrence – Local business owner
Stephen Holt – Devonshire Ward Councillor and member of the Chamber of Commerce
Clare Hackney Ring – Resident
Dave Ring – Resident
Domenico Della Valle – Resident

The Board has to be between 8 and 20 members; it is a Local Trust requirement that the Board has a resident majority. All Board members have signed up to a set of policies and procedures in accordance with Local Trust guidance and good practice.

The DWBL Plan

After 18 months of consultation exercises, more than 800 post-it notes with residents’ ideas and dreams, and painstaking scrutiny of documents, statistics and other projects in the area, the Devonshire West Big Local team put together the Plan for the first three years of Lottery funding.

The Plan was presented to the community on 7th August 2014 at a drop-in meeting and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. It was submitted to Local Trust on 22nd September, and they visited for an interview on 16th October. Final approval was deferred until there was a newly elected Board with a full term of office ahead; after the AGM in November, the last few bits of paperwork were signed and sealed and the first installment of the 2015 phase of funding was on its way in January 2015.

You can click here to read the full plan.

Every three years Devonshire West Big Local must create a new 3-year plan which is designed with input from board members, residents and local stakeholders and then submitted to Big Local for review and approval.

A summary of the Devonshire West Big Local 3-year plan for 2017-2019 can be found below. Our 2017-2019 plan targets four themes that we wish to concentrate on over the next three years, these themes are;

Theme 1. Consolidating our Devonshire West Big Local Presence

Theme 2. Operating a grants programme

Theme 3. Supporting local enterprise and promoting social inclusion

Theme 4. Working in partnership

The Start of DWBL

At the start of 2013, it was the Local Trust rep, Jim Boot, wandering the streets talking to people. A gradually snowballing group formed a “partnership” that began organising the consultation process. By the end of that year, a “Board” was elected, with responsibility for collating all the data and formalising the paperwork. They are continually supported by members of the community, from spreading the word to coming up with ideas and running events.

The DWBL Film

During the first period of the project, the Devonshire West Big Local team commissioned a film to give a flavour of the area and the ideas that people had. Community Stuff produced this beautiful 10 minute film – this was included in the submission to the Local Trust.

Enjoy…

Context documents

Here at Devonshire West Big Local we have a number of documents which support and influence our work.

Some of these key documents are;

Our Area Profile, which contains information on the many demographics living and working within Devonshire West and can be found here. The Area Profile is an older document and we now use the more current Local Insight Report provided to us by Big Local, which can be found here. The Local Insight Report is a key document which we recommend potential grant applicants view as it contains detailed information about local demographics and issues.

Information gathered from resident consultations are also regularly used by Devonshire West Big Local, we strive to make sure that the work we do always reflects the wishes of our residents and so we undertake regular consultation activities, from large scale meetings to smaller, more informal, conversations. In 2012 Devonshire West Big Local asked residents to take part in a huge consultation effort which provided us with data to start our work, the results of that First Resident Consultation can be found here. We have also undertaken more recent consultations including a number of small Focus Groups, the data from those meetings can be found here.

Devonshire West Big Local also have a number of policies and procedure that we ensure we always adhere to, these include a Code of Conduct and policies regarding Conflict of Interest, Data Protection and Confidential Information, Health & Safety, Safeguarding, Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Incision, Anti-Bullying and Complaints. Should you wish to see a copy of any of these polocies you can request them by emailing Samantha.Wickens@3VA.org.uk.

Local Trust Guidance

The Local Trust website contains a number of documents and a great deal of information about the Big Local program. To find out more about Big Local and the Local Trust you can visit the Local Trust website here.

We are looking for people to come and join the board.

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POSTAL ADDRESS

The Seaside Community Hub, 125 Seaside, Eastborne, BN22 7NN

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DELIVERY SUPPORT

Provided by Helen Owen Marketing Enterprises (HOME) CIC

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Contact Us

Email: info@devonshirewestbiglocal.org.uk
Phone: 07378 972277

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Phone

07378 972277