Metro Mayor unveils ₤480,000 grants fund for community and voluntary organisations using returns on successful investments. Metro
LIVERPOOL City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has
unveiled a near ½ a million pound grant fund to help community projects and
groups across the Liverpool City Region; using some of the profits from
successful investments the Combined Authority has made. The pot; which builds on
the success of LCR Cares, which raised and distributed over ₤2.5 million to
hundreds of organisations across the Region, helping more than 250,000 people
during the Pandemic; was made possible by a ₤1.6m return from the Chrysalis
Fund. Under the innovative grant scheme, voluntary and community organisations
can bid, via a simplified process, for cash to support initiatives meeting key
pillars of the Region's recovery plan, Build Back Better. These include mental
health and wellbeing, community wealth building and digital inclusion as well as
providing support for volunteer management. The flexible scheme has been shaped
by the priorities and needs of the community and voluntary sector.
Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:- "Our
Region's community and voluntary sector is the envy of the country. And, when
the Pandemic threatened to wreak havoc on our most vulnerable, they stepped up.
I'm proud of the way we were able to help them with LCR Cares, a unique crowd
funded campaign that raised more than ₤2.5m to help support that invaluable
work: from mental health counselling and delivering food packages, to providing
entertainment for children stuck inside and specialist support for victims of
domestic abuse. LCR Cares was an emergency measure for an emergency situation.
Now I'm moving to give the sector more financial security with a bespoke fund
paid for from the profits we've made from successful investments. This will help
free up the sector from some of the unnecessary red tape they face when normally
applying for funding and allow them to get on with what they do best: making a
difference in their communities. The funding will be managed via VS6, a
partnership of 11 support organisations working with the 8,600 voluntary,
community, faith and social enterprise groups operating across the City Region."
Independent Chair of VS6, Rev Canon Dr Ellen Loudon, Director of Social Justice
and Canon Chancellor, Diocese of Liverpool, said:- "The VS6 Partnership
are delighted to hear that ₤480,000 of grant funding is being made available to
the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector in Liverpool City
Region, following on from the implementation of the successful LCR Cares Fund.
We welcome the continued commitment of investment into the sector by the Metro
Mayor and the Combined Authority, evidencing their recognition of the important
role of the sector in stimulating community action through local economic
growth, employment opportunities and community innovation. This grant funding
will enable us to build upon the success and innovation of LCR Cares, the 1st of
it's kind in the UK, with a leading edge approach to ensuring that the sector's
reach into communities and commitment to inclusion is an inherent part of the
Build Back Better strategy in the City Region."
Deputy Metro Mayor and Leader of Wirral Council, Cllr Janette Williamson, said:-
"LCR Cares has been a genuine trailblazer in putting cash directly into
communities where it can help achieve the most benefit, and I have no doubt that
this new fund will build on that success. The events of the last 18 months
through the Pandemic have once again shown the vital role the community and
voluntary groups play right across our Region, and this will hopefully help them
continue to deliver for and support their communities."
Tickets now available for immersive attraction which takes St George's Hall visitors back to the 1850's
TICKETS are now available for a brand new immersive
visitor experience at St George's Hall in Liverpool, which opens its doors next
month. The History Whisperer is the focal point of the new St George's Hall
Experience and opens to visitors on Friday, 8 October 2021, using the latest
technology to plunge audiences into a world where the past meets the present and
history comes alive. It brings to life Liverpool in the 1850s and illustrates
how the building represented 2 very different sides to the City - from the
opulence of the Great Hall and Concert Room so loved by Queen Victoria and
Charles Dickens to the destitution of people in the building's prison cells
awaiting sentencing in its court room. The attraction tells the story through
the eyes of a child called Livie, who finds herself all alone after her father
is transported to the other side of the world after completing work on the
construction of St George's Hall, while her brother is in 1 of the building's
prison cells awaiting his fate.
For a limited period, tickets for the new attraction will cost just ₤1 per
person; as the City's way of giving something back to the people of Liverpool
following the Pandemic. Behind the new addition is a team of the country's
leading tech organisations:-
► Gazooky Studios - a BAFTA
and Prix Europa award winning storytelling and world class XR technology
company.
► Immersive Interactive -
specialists in mesmerising touch wall interactivity.
► Music in Mind - an
industry-leader when it comes to creating rousing, witty and deeply moving music
and sound effects.
The creators behind the experience have drawn on their international experience
and accolades. They boast many international awards, from BAFTAs to Prix Europas
and the Venice Biennale. Gazooky Studios has worked with the BBC, BFI, Columbia
Sony, Microsoft, Netflix, and many other world class partners, and have been
part of several world 1st experiences including Kansas Sealife AR experience,
Covent Garden AR shopping experience and London Bridge Station Hub. The music
has been specially composed and performed by globally respected musicians from
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The consortium has spent the last
few months devising and installing the attraction, after Liverpool City Council
secured ₤250,000 from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as part of the
Government's Culture Recovery Fund.
Liverpool's Cabinet Member for Culture and Visitor Economy, Councillor Harry
Doyle, said:- "St George's Hall is a already a must visit destination for
tourists and residents alike, but by bringing on board some of the country's
leading digital and immersive technology companies, we are now offering a whole
new way of showcasing its amazing history. We know how tough people have found
the last 18 months, so when we throw open the doors it will cost just ₤1 per
person to visit as a way of giving something back to the City. The story told in
the History Whisperer is key to understanding the City's past and what makes it
the place it is today."
Head of Heritage Preservation and Development, Alan Smith, said:- "St
George's Hall has always been an incredibly important part of Liverpool since it
was built, and to this day it plays a role in important moments in people's
lives, whether it is hosting a wedding or by being the place you visit to
register a birth, death or marriage. Now, using the latest technology, we are
able to bring alive the sights and sounds of the City's past in a way that has
never been done before, bringing a whole new dimension to the experience of
visiting the building. It is hugely exciting for us and is a key part of our
determination to make sure the building is as relevant today as it always has
been; a living, breathing part of life in the City."
Speaking on be½ of The History Whisperer consortium, Chief Executive and
Creative Director of Gazooky Studios, Dr Rose Kay, said:- "We are
delighted to be given this amazing opportunity. Our aim has been to bring the
spaces of St George's Hall alive with an immersive, interactive storytelling
attraction unlike anything else in the UK. It combines the latest XR technology,
film, art and music which I know will move people and have them reflecting on
life for the City's ancestors. It has been a great privilege to be working with
other Liverpool-based companies and with the community, to create a world-class
experience, sharing stories of Liverpool's rich past."
More information is available now at:-
StGeorgesHallLiverpool.Co.UK.