Denbighshire Key Fund Award for Resilience and Sustainability moving forward
Posted on 14 Dec 2023
We are pleased to announce that Book of You were recently successful in an application to Denbighshire Key Fund. Unlike our usual projects, this is crucial for us right now as it is a capacity-building programme, enabling us to become more resilient and sustainable over the coming years. It means we will have the technology and resources to increase the breadth and quality of our current service alongside expanding the work we do, helping even more beneficiaries.
The Denbighshire Key Fund is part of the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund which aims to create stronger communities and better chances in life. Although we are a successful social enterprise of more than 12 years’ standing, the type of work we do has grown faster than our website and marketing currently reflects. We developed organically from our initial concept, supporting people living with dementia to share their life stories with loved ones, to storytelling in its wider sense. Today we work with more diverse beneficiaries including young adults with a learning disability, refugees and veterans. Recently, we have moved from personal life stories to community-based stories that support wellbeing, connectivity, different cultures, heritage and community cohesion.
We are extremely proud of our work and the difference we make to people’s lives. However, this evolutionary process, spotting opportunities and responding to change, had left us without the essential foundations for growing in a focused and effective way. The Key Fund will enable us to re-launch Book of You as a modern social enterprise, so as not to be thought of solely as a business limited to working with dementia, but rather one that works with diverse partners, funders and communities in Denbighshire and beyond.
The fund will allow us to completely update and expand the outdated website that will help us market our full range of produces and services, including ‘Community Books’, ‘Book of You Classic’, ‘Book of You-run Training Courses’, our new ‘Lifebook’ app and our ‘Care Home Buddy’ project. With a desktop printer/photocopier/scanner and Canva for Teams, we can design and print relevant marketing materials to match each new project in-house, reducing cost. Core staff will all work on MacBook Air laptops with iMovie built in, meaning that we have three staff members who can make our Community Book films in-house, instead of just one. This frees up more time and allows for us to take on more projects. All this will support our business plan, which is currently being developed with an Innovate UK Edge Consultant’s support. The fund will also help us effectively recruit 2 more volunteer board members and 4 new Associate staff members who will support our core staff team on all projects. Together, this will futurproof our community interest company and give it resilience to change, as well as helping us access more diverse and sustainable funding sources.
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