Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) has officially launched Our Vale, a new crowdfunding platform for community projects.
This is a new way for people living in the Vale to raise funds for local projects that aim to help shape the Vale’s shared spaces and deliver community projects. Community groups, grant funders, councillors and council officers attended an event on Monday 9 July to celebrate the launch of the programme – which already has a potential pledge pot of £300,000 available to projects crowdfunding through Our Vale.
The crowdfunding model is simple; if residents want to enhance their street or neighbourhood, improve local play areas or simply bring people together, Our Vale will become the best way to raise the money to make this happen. It’s about raising small amounts of money from large amounts of people and organisations to fund projects or innovations. Through Our Vale, residents will have the opportunity to ask friends, family and neighbours to back a local project by pledging money to support it. AVDC has put its weight behind this exciting new scheme and will support projects that have the backing of the local community.
The audience at the launch event heard from local organisations who have already submitted a proposal on the Our Vale platform, one of which will feature on the Our Vale website in a few days.
Christopher Williams, Conservation and Education Director Bucks, Berks and Oxon Wildlife Trust said: “We’re looking to raise £7,500 to create a fabulous new wildlife garden. The whole school, nearly 1,000 school children, will benefit from this Wild Trax makeover project based at Mandeville School. Students taking part will be able to learn about wildlife gardening and creating habitats as they carry out the work. Importantly, they will take on real ownership of the project which will encourage them to look after the garden into the future.”
Councillor Julie Ward, Cabinet Member for Civic Amenities (Customer Fulfilment) said: “This is an exciting initiative for everyone in Aylesbury Vale and we’re looking forward to helping people create special, unusual and interesting projects across the district.
“Crowdfunding is a new way for local people to give their support to local projects that are close to their hearts and a great way to reward residents for getting involved. It’s already proved itself popular with raising funds for the Bowie Earthly Messenger statue that is now drawing attention in the centre of Aylesbury town.
“Many people have great ideas to make places better in the Vale but don’t always know how to find the funding or access the help they need to move their project on. Our Vale will help empower local people to add value to the wider community, improving the quality of life for all.”
The new Our Vale website can be found at: www.spacehive.com/movement/our-vale
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