Email news bulletin April 2006

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Community finance – lessons for the future
Collections for the future
Wings of learning
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Supporting access to finance in Leeds
What has happened to Britain's moths?
HEARTS
Rethinking Crime and Punishment programme - second phase launched
Be inspired
Values of the Third Sector
Annual report wins national award
Margaret Hyde OBE

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Community finance - lessons for the future

Access to finance is critical in starting a business. This can be a particular challenge for low-income entrepreneurs, who may not have the financial track-record to allow them to access finance. Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) aim to tackle this by delivering affordable financial services to excluded groups. In a new report, supported by Esmée Fairbairn and the Community Development Finance Association (cdfa), the progress of one of the CDFI movement’s pioneers, Aspire Microloans for Business, is charted and lessons from their evolution are drawn out. The report highlights many important lessons for other community finance development institutions and their funders. The full report and a shorter briefing are available on Esmée Fairbairn’s website.

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - reports

Collections for the future

Last summer, the Museums Association published Collections for the Future, the result of an 18-month inquiry to reinvigorate debate about the role and purpose of museum collections. The inquiry involved contributions from over 500 individuals and organisations, including research supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The report sets out a series of recommendations that the Museums Association hopes to take forward, or encourage others to take forward, in order to make museum collections more dynamic, improve public engagement and strengthen the museums sector.

The Museums Association website

Wings of learning

A major new study, published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, and supported by Esmée Fairbairn, investigates the attitudes of prison officers towards education in prisons. The report, called Wings of Learning, concluded that prison officers should have a basic responsibility to facilitate prisoner learning, and there needs to be service-wide recognition of the broad range of learning opportunities within prisons. Integrated management of learning is needed at governor level within each prison and the promotion of learning should be covered in management plans. Officers should be provided with relevant training and the service should clarify what officers can offer to promote learning. Following the launch of the report, the Forum for Prisoner Education is holding a seminar in May 2006, to discuss the issues it raises.

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - reports

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Foundation’s Arts & Heritage programme has recently made a grant to support the core work of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The park was established in 1977, in response to the absence of a dedicated space to display large-scale sculpture designed for the open air. Five-hundred acres of grade II listed 18th century parkland was acquired surrounding Bretton Hall, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Yorkshire Sculpture Park is home to Barbara Hepworth’s renowned Family of Man collection of works, as well as the work of other high-profile sculptors, including Henry Moore. Programming plans over the next three years include a rare opportunity in the UK to see the work of US artist James Turrell. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park has been nominated for the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for museums and galleries 2006.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park website

Supporting access to finance in Leeds

Leeds City Credit Union is the largest credit union in the country. It is seeking to expand its service into two areas, Seacroft and Armley, where it has been traditionally less active but where the levels of economic disadvantage are among the highest in the city. Two offices in well-established drop-in centres have been offered to the credit union by Leeds City Council and will be rent free. A funding package from the Foundation, that includes a loan and grant support worth £420,000 in total, will provide salaries and contribute to the running costs of the new offices and will increase the funds the credit union has available to lend to new members. Supporting financial independence is a priority for the Foundation's Social Change: Enterprise and Independence programme.

What has happened to Britain's moths?

Britain’s moth population is in serious decline, causing concern for the future of many species of birds, bats and small mammals that feed on them. Esmée Fairbairn has supported the charity Butterfly Conservation to research and publish a new report called The State of Britain’s larger moths. Although the exact reasons for the decline cannot be pinpointed, habitat loss and climate change may well play a part. Sixty-two moth species are believed to have become extinct during the 20th century in Britain. The report was funded by the Foundation’s UK Biodiversity initiative, which aims to support the recovery of threatened UK species that are not benefiting from other funding sources. The report was featured in a recent edition of BBC Four’s Nature.

Butterfly Conservation website

HEARTS

For many years, primary teacher education has been dominated by government concerns about producing new teachers who can help their pupils achieve higher standards in the 'basics' - particularly maths and literacy. Studies have suggested that the arts have suffered as a result. Esmee Fairbairn’s Higher Education, the Arts & Schools (HEARTS) project looks at ways of supporting the arts in teacher training. The HEARTS project hoped to encourage higher education institutes (HEIs) to place greater priority on the arts in their initial teacher training courses. Initially, financial and practical support was given to three HEIs to introduce new programmes of art work into their curricula. An interim evaluation of the HEARTS project is now available on the Foundation’s website.

HEARTS website

Rethinking Crime and Punishment programme - second phase launched

The second phase of the Foundation's Rethinking Crime & Punishment (RCP) initiative was launched in December at the Royal Courts of Justice, London at an event attended by over 60 people, including the Lord Chief Justice. Speakers were the event’s host, Lord Justice Keene, Baroness Linklater who is Chairman of Rethinking Crime & Punishment and Rob Allen, RCP Programme Coordinator. The second-phase programme aims to increase public and judicial engagement with community-based sentences in order to promote confidence in their use as an alternative to prison. The programme has three strands. In the first, the Thames Valley Partnership will carry out a large-scale pilot project, testing new ways for the public to influence what forms of unpaid work should be available for offenders as part of a community sentence. In the second, magistrates and judges will engage in visits to probation and community projects in the Thames Valley area. The third strand is a contribution to a national awards scheme set up by the Howard League for Penal Reform to recognise, encourage and publicise best practice in community work with offenders. The Wates Foundation and the Henry Smith Charity are funding partners in this programme.

Rethinking Crime and Punishment website

Be inspired

Launched in 2005 in partnership with Arts Council England, the Inspire Fellowship Programme aims to address the shortage of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) curators in London’s national museums and galleries. London is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, yet currently less than five percent of curators in the capital’s national museums and galleries are from BME communities. The programme has placed five trainee curators in two-year fellowships at the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Each Inspire fellow will be funded for two years, undergo training and deliver their own major project at their host institution. The fellowships are funded in partnership by Esmée Fairbairn, Arts Council England and the participating museums and galleries.

Values of the Third Sector

It is often claimed that the key distinguishing feature of organisations in the voluntary sector is that they are value driven, but these values are rarely defined or distinguished from those of the public or private sectors. Some feel that the sector’s increasing role in delivering public services and the growth of social enterprises is inhibiting its independence, its potential for advocacy and its scope for radical action. Esmée Fairbairn supported Community Links to investigate some of these issues through a collaborative inquiry into the values of the third sector. A steering group comprising representatives of small and large voluntary groups and the public and private sectors oversaw the work. The report of the Inquiry will be launched at a central London conference on 23rd June, which will discuss the issue of values and some of the practical implications for voluntary organisations. A toolkit will also be launched. If you would like to register interest in the report or attending the conference please e-mail your details to: uk@community-links.org

Annual report wins national award

Esmee Fairbairn's annual report was a winner at the Charities Aid Foundation’s Online Accounts Awards final in December. The awards recognise excellence in financial reporting and encourage best practice in online financial accounts. The Foundation won first prize in the large charities (income over £2m) category and was awarded a prize of £5,000. The prize money has been donated to the Disaster Emergency Committee to support relief work following the earthquake in Asia.

Charities Aid Foundation’s Online Accounts Awards

Margaret Hyde OBE

Congratulations to Margaret Hyde, who retired after 11 years as the Foundation's Director last September. In the new year honours list, Margaret was awarded an OBE for services to the voluntary sector.

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18 April 2006

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