CCB was set up in 2015 as part of Leicestershire County Council’s Communities Strategy, and came to a close in 2017. Instead of focusing on what was missing in communities, CCB concentrated on using existing resources to create positive, creative and inclusive actions for the whole community. The project turned local people into ‘kickstarters’, who could run projects that benefited their area.
Initially the project worked in key target areas of Leicestershire:
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- Hastings ward (Loughborough, Charnwood Borough)
- Greenhill and Agar Nook (Coalville, North West Leicestershire)
- South Wigston (Oadby & Wigston Borough)
- Bagworth and Thornton (Hinckley and Bosworth)
- Supporting seven Leicestershire communities to explore taking on their local library as acommunity managed library
In 2016 those target areas were changed to:
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- Hasting and Lemyngton wards (Loughborough)
- Greenhill, Agar Nook and Coalville Town
- South Wigston and Wigston
- Measham
Key achievements
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- 42 kickstarters
- 286 people/volunteers involved
- 44 initiatives created
Community Managed Libraries
In 2015, CCB started to provide support to seven Leicestershire communities to help them to take over their local library as a Community Managed Library. The seven areas were Measham, Sapcote, Narborough, Cosby, Kibworth, Ibstock, and Great Glen.
In partnership with VAL’s Sector Support team, CCB promoted and delivered workshops to a total of 117 people to explore how local people could take over their library services.
All seven areas went on to submit a Registration of Interest and ultimately took over their local library services.
Celebrate Events
In 2017, CCB successfully won a bid to the Celebrate England programme managed by the Big Lottery Fund. Using the funding from this bid, CCB ran four community events in Measham, Coalville (Greenhill and Agar Nook), Wigston and Loughborough (Hastings and Lemyngton wards).
These events gave local people an opportunity to celebrate their communities, which were often the subject of negative publicity due to economic deprivation, unemployment and crime.
Project final report
Download the CCB Project final report (PDF)