Wow, wow, wow and wow! When we launched our first ever fund in January we had HIGH HOPES but I don’t think we could ever have anticipated the extent that the community of Levenshulme would embrace what we are trying to do – applications have now closed and we are happy to report that we have been absolutely inundated with excellent applications – the vast majority of them from Levenshulme residents or businesses on our high street.
Because we got roughly twice as many as we were expecting we have had to short list the candidates, otherwise we would have to ask the residents of Levenshulme to spend pretty much a whole day and night at the voting event on 8th March.
Thankfully, we have a trusty group of independent assessors who had agreed to act as supervisors for the applications (making sure they met all the criteria of the awards) and the voting (making sure there’s no funny business!) and they have very kindly worked together to produce a short list from the applicants received. It was no mean feat – all the applications very very strong but we asked the panel to consider the applications strengths and weaknesses with reference to their:
- Feasibility
- Longevity
- Impact
The panel reached their conclusions over the course of a long evening and a lot of coffee and we are very proud to announce our short listed projects – you can read summaries of them all here – with details of the projects, their bid amount and how they are planning on spending the funds if they are awarded the money by the community vote.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our panel of independent assessors who represent The Kindling Trust, UnLtd, Heaton Moor Market and the North Manchester Regeneration team of MCC.
We have provided feedback to the unsuccessful applicants from the panel on how they can strengthen their applications for future applications to us or other funds and we are also working with some applicants who identified common themes of areas they wanted to develop to see how we can help them pool resources to achieve their aims.
Further information about the voting event
SORRY – The voting event is now sold out – if you would like to be places on a waiting list please email info@levymarket.com
So, now it’s over to you Levenshulme! the final decisions on who will be funded will be made at our live voting event on the evening of 8th March – we have now updated the website with all the information you need to know about how you can be there (HINT: YOU NEED TO REGISTER), how the voting will work and what you can expect on the night (actually, we say “all” but we’re bound to have missed something! If you have a burning question let us know). We’ve also got a helpful FAQ which covers a lot of bases on the application process and voting so check there if you’re unsure on anything.
So – thank you again to all our applicants and our panel, congratulations to our short listed applicants – see you on 8th March.