Making Connections Count — Towns Fund Website

Making Connections Count is a TFDP programme aimed at helping you develop the relationships you need to deliver meaningful change.

Building lasting relationships with communities is key to successfully developing Towns Fund projects and creating long-term cumulative impact. At the same time, strong business networks attract private sector investment, and taken together, these connections can maximise the benefits for your Town.

The programme is being delivered in two parts. Part One, on community engagement, was delivered in June and July (details below). Part Two, on private sector investment, runs from October to November. Part Two is relevant to all interested in investment, whether you attended Part One or if you are coming to the programme afresh.

Part Two: Private sector investment - October - November

The second stage of the Making Connections Count programme will look to build upon Part One, although you do not have to have attended Part One to participate in Part Two.

Part One focused on identifying different types of stakeholders alongside ways of engaging with them at different points and – importantly – for the longer-term.

Part Two focuses in on the use of connections to unlock opportunities around investment within your town. Delivered through a series of workshops with a range of external speakers – plus the opportunity for one-to-one support, we are building upon your existing knowledge and experience and provide you with a strong foundation to best utilise your existing connections and create new ones with the explicit intention of helping you to secure investments into your town.

Our hope is that following the programme you will:

Appreciate the needs and priorities of investors and use this to continue the development of your funding strategy to meet the private match co-funding requirements.
Be able to establish the key principles on what will drive a successful strategy in your town thinking about marketing, showcasing and overall brand building with the purpose of creating confidence and attract investment.
Have confidence to structure and present a pitch that provides the required detail in a format that engages effectively to a funder/investor

We are looking for you to nominate at least one individual to attend each of the four sessions although we would encourage you to think about who else might want to join for the different workshops (for example your Town Board Chair may be someone you want to involve in the pitching workshop).

Between each session, you will develop your thinking, reflecting on your specific conditions and projects, and will be able to draw on support from the Towns Fund Delivery Partner.

The programme is:

Session 1: Tuesday 5th October, 10am to 12 noon
Session 2: Tuesday 12th October, 10am to 12 noon
Session 3: Monday 18th October, 10am to 12 noon
Session 4: Monday 15th November, 2pm to 4pm
Workshop: Date and time TBC

Please register your interest by clicking the button below and completing the form

Making Connections Count 2

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Your role and responsibilities

Who is your Town Coordinator?

Please review the session time and dates below. Are you able to attend the workshops on weeks 1, 3 and 6? (all 3 session run from 10am-midday)

If there is one thing you hope to get out of the Making Connections Count programme, what would that be?

What would you say your current experience level is with community and stakeholder engagement?

None yet, i'm just getting started

Somewhat experienced, I undertake a small level of engagment in my day to day job

Very experienced, I already do this to a high level with all community stakeholders

If you have any other questions please email [email protected].

Part One: Community Engagement - 23rd June - 30th July 2021

This programme helped you understand how to put your ideas from your Town Investment Plan into practice. You understood the need to engage and consider the views and observations from a broad spectrum of people and businesses in your Town. This programme provided you with the ability to develop a bespoke toolbox of how to engage and ensure this becomes ‘best practice’ as you move forward with your Towns Fund projects and other funded programmes. The training used case studies and ‘real world’ examples of the most effective ways to engage and communicate.

Building on existing knowledge, experience and/or interest we supported you to develop a practical plan for effective and long-term community engagement with residents, businesses, the voluntary sector and other organisations in your Town - and start to test it.

To achieve this, we adopted a practical and scenario-focused ‘action-learning’ approach, enabling you to:

Determine a practical scenario that you would find valuable to focus on e.g. prioritising projects post-award/engaging with harder to reach audiences/bringing a challenging key stakeholder on board
Identify the full shape of the communities within your Town, with a focus on the key stakeholder groups and individuals who may be influential in shaping/delivering your projects and/or be impacted by them
Share and learn more from other Towns and experts about the approaches to engaging effectively with different typical stakeholder audiences, from channels to tools; identifying potential barriers to engagement and routes to overcoming them - based on your scenario
Share and learn more from other towns and experts about effective ways to sustain long-term engagement and practically where to start now based on your chosen scenario
Finish this programme feeling comfortable and confident in putting this plan into action

If you have any other questions please email [email protected].

The programme ran from 23 June – w/c 26 July, following the schedule set out below: