The Bishop of Lichfield has released the first £20,000 in donations raised through his Lent Appeal.
Just over £40,000 was raised by individuals and parishes throughout
the diocese in response to Bishop Jonathan Gledhill's appeal. Each year,
the money raised is divided between projects in the UK and projects
abroad.
This year, the proceeds were shared at a 'Practising Generosity' event hosted by Bishop Jonathan Gledhill.
The event was attended by 21 groups requesting between £200 and
£2,000 for their cause.
A system called participatory budgeting was used
in which each person present voted for their top 10 projects.
Once totalled, the project with the most points was awarded the funds
it requested, then the second, third and so on, until there are no
funds left.
Twelve projects were fully funded and one partially in this
way.
The top score went to a project in Tamworth to provide a hot lunch
each day during the summer holidays to children who normally rely on
free school meals.
The large team presented their project in song,
dressed in aprons and waving kitchen utensils.
Second place went to the 'Crafty Tuesdays' project in Pleck, Walsall,
which brings isolated people together around arts and crafts.
"It is so often the case that we who are given positions of authority
are asked to make decisions from a detached position," said Bishop
Gledhill about using the voting system.
"This can have impartial benefits, but often loses sight of what it feels like to be part of a community.
"I felt it was one of the best events I've ever been to in this diocese. It was so inspiring to see how generosity spreads."
At the end of the distribution, the 'winners' were invited to give
back part of the funds they had been awarded so that more projects could
benefit and a further £2250 was made available, allowing 14
fully-awarded grants and one partially funded.
The Reverend David Primrose, Director of Transforming Communities for
the Diocese of Lichfield and leader of the team that organised the
event said: "Practising Generosity is a core value of this diocese and
the Christian life. It is a most generous act by the Bishop to release
the funds from his Lent Appeal for others to distribute as they see
fit."
The event was supported by Alan Budge of the Participatory Budgeting
Unit who said: "Participatory Budgeting has a good track record around
the world and increasingly in local communities in the UK. It hasn't
been tried for distributing funds over scattered groups like this before
so we had to work hard to help people from around the diocese to come
together and learn about each other's projects."
Reverend Primrose continued: "Many people I've talked to before,
during and since the event are really enthusiastic about the strengths
of this process. It is wonderful to see so many projects moving forward.
"But for me the real mark of success will be to see some of these
groups going back to their local councils, police & crime
commissioner or other grant bodies and persuading those funding
providers to embrace participatory budgeting as a means of prioritising
and funding local projects."