East Cleveland Good Neighbours - East Cleveland Villages

Establishing a foodbank and delivery service to address rural food poverty

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the partnership allocated funds to East Cleveland Good Neighbours support and food bank. After lockdowns, the community group continued to run a food bank and helpline staffed largely by local volunteers. Residents could collect food parcels or have them delivered to rural locations across East Cleveland. At its peak, the food bank service supported over 100 residents a month. The Big Local worker sourced donations and co-ordinated around 30 core volunteers to operate the service.

The partnership also allocated funding towards an information and advice officer as more residents needed support with the rising cost of living. This role provided professional one-to-one advice at The Loftus Club and in other community spaces, signposting residents to registered debt-advice services.

By working alongside their locally trusted organisation (LTO), Tees Valley Rural Action, East Cleveland Good Neighbours Big Local were able to ensure food provision locally by delivering part of their offer with The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT), an affordable food club that delivers across the UK. This meant that as the Big Local programme came to an end, free food remained available to residents through donations, while bags of food were available for a small fee through TBBT.

Holding ​‘soup’ events to distribute grants and connect residents across 11 rural communities 

East Cleveland Good Neighbours Big Local distributed many small grants to support their priorities. However, in 2021, the partnership reflected that many residents were unclear about how Big Local had allocated this funding because decision-making had happened behind closed doors. 

To connect with the 11 communities more deeply, and be held more accountable for who received funding, the partnership developed what they referred to as ​‘soup’ events. First run in the USA in 2010, a ​‘soup’ is a fundraising event at which participants eat a communal meal and listen to individuals or groups pitch ideas. The partnership adapted this model to allow local community groups and organisations to share ideas in front of an audience for small grants of up to £500 funded through Big Local. Accompanied by breakfast and lunch, the audience voted for projects with fake pound notes, and funds were distributed proportionately based on who received the most votes. This ensured nobody left empty handed. 

These events particularly benefited groups that served the smaller communities in East Cleveland as they struggled to access funding elsewhere due to their small populations. The LTO agreed to hold the funding for groups that didn’t have a bank account. 

An unintended outcome of the soup events was the opportunity for everyone involved to network, which led to greater collaboration between groups in the area. For example, after meeting at a pitching event, two community groups who were using the same community space agreed to share equipment.

Bringing communities together with an internationally acclaimed cycling race

Keen to bring visitors to the Big Local area, the partnership developed the idea for an international cycling race that would go through East Cleveland, taking advantage of its hills, countryside and coastal views. Inspired by the Tour de Yorkshire, the event was called the East Cleveland Klondike Grand Prix, in honour of the area’s mining heritage. 

The first race took place in 2017, featuring 140 professional riders from across the UK and Europe. The event was covered on national and local TV, radio and press, and was watched by thousands of spectators along the route. The partnership worked alongside British Cycling and a cycling events company, Velo 29, to ensure the race became part of the international cycling events calendar over the following two years. 

A few partnership members and the paid worker took on a large amount of the planning and project management themselves. While members involved did develop event management skills, they also reflected that it would be worth relying more on external support to organise and host the race rather than stretching resident volunteer capacity in the future. 

The East Cleveland Klondike Grand Prix led to wider positive outcomes for the area over the years it ran. East Cleveland Good Neighbours Big Local ran a widespread campaign to get residents across the villages engaged and excited about the race, encouraging them to host community events that coincided with cyclists passing through. Residents also spruced up local flower beds, benches and outside spaces around community locations, and decorated their villages in race colours (green and yellow) for the events. These activities nurtured wider community spirit and connection across East Cleveland; one village in the area even formed a lasting committee to bring a new lease of life to their village hall, going on to win further funding through pitching events, and helping the hall become a thriving community space into the future. 

The 2020 race was cancelled due to the pandemic. After this, the partnership decided not to fund any future races, focusing instead on enabling more local events and activities across the area.

Supporting hyperlocal community events to foster solidarity

Towards the end of Big Local, the partnership changed their approach to engaging residents, recognising the different identities of the 11 communities across the Big Local area. Rather than focusing on large-scale East Cleveland-wide events (such as the Klondike bike race), they turned their attention to enabling activities and events to take place within the different towns and villages that made up the area, especially through their ​‘soup’ fundraising and funding events. 

For example, the East Cleveland Good Neighbours Big Local joined a consortium led by a local mining museum to deliver the Big Jubilee Festival. They helped organise small events in village halls and community spaces across the Big Local area, such as exhibitions, oral narratives, and arts and crafts workshops. Residents were encouraged to complete a stamp card by visiting various events.

The partnership also ran a seasonal fundraising event so community groups could pitch for funding to run local Christmas events. These included breakfast with Santa, weekly Christmas-themed activities in smaller villages, and a large Christmas tree festival in Loftus, the largest town in the area.

Nurturing a landscaping business and football festival 

Responding to a lack of local opportunities for young people to build skills, the partnership collaborated with, funded, and nurtured new organisations and groups to support young people across East Cleveland. For example, towards the end of Big Local, East Cleveland Good Neighbours Big Local seed-funded The Foxwood Project. Young people volunteered to clear and improve green spaces in the area to make them suitable for community use. This enabled them to develop transferable skills they could apply in future employment. Big Local funding allowed the organisation to set up necessary policies and procedures to become financially sustainable. They then delivered commercial gardening work across the area to fund community projects.

Another successful Big Local funded project was the East Cleveland Football Festival, which enabled over 2000 pupils from nine local primary schools to access formal football training. Skelton United FC initially pitched for funding to transport young people to a local football festival. The partnership felt the club had the project management skills to develop a football festival of their own and were keen to bring together young people across the Big Local area through high quality sports engagement. As well as showing off their skills at the East Cleveland Football Festival, the project supported young people transitioning between primary and secondary school to gain confidence and make friends. Towards the end of Big Local, the partnership was working with Skelton United FC to develop a sustainability plan to continue delivery into the future.