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Village SOS
UK village life is about to get REALLY exciting as villlages are offered the chance to come up with brilliant businesses that benefit and bring energy back to village communities!
Waking up UK villages!
The some times quiet life of UK villages is set to get a seriously exciting and enterprising wake-up!
The Village SOS project wants to bring life back to UK villages by supporting villagers, young and old, to put their local business ideas into action.
Bringing a new energy to village life
Teams with ideas that benefit life in the village and bring different people from the village community together can apply for the cahnce to be selected as a Village SOS participant and receive up to £400,000 from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) to get their local business going.
UK villages with a great business idea that will bring life, a community buzz and the enterprising brains of the village together will be selected.
Village Enterprise Champions!
The project is also looking for six village champions.
The stories of how their social enterprise dreams were made a reality will feature in a primetime BBC One series starting in Winter 2010.
Got a bright idea to benefit your village?
If less than 3,000 people live in your village, your village can apply for a Big Lottery Fund (BIG) grant! So, if you‘ve got a great idea to transform life in your village, start talking to parents, neighbours, adults in the community and see if you have support to take your idea even further.
There are LOTS of things you can do!
Any business or activity that would benefit people of all ages in your village is eligible to apply. You may want to set up a local chop, an online retail business, an arts or tourism business or even a festival. As long as it has the potential to grow and make a profit for the village it will be considered.
The village shop, the new place to be!
Often the best ideas are the simplest ones! The residents of Ryburgh in Norfolk didn‘t want to see their local shop disappear, so they clubbed together and bought it!
The village shop is now not only the main place in the village to buy food, locally grown produce and send letters, with its internet cafe and coffee shop it is also the new social centre of the village for people of all ages. Plus, it is making the profits that villagers had originally planned to make three years from now!
Find out more
To find out more and get your village going visit: www.bbc.co.uk/villagesos |
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