Making Pendle a better place

We're spending almost £1.9m across the public, private and voluntary sector so that everyone gets a chance to help us to:

• get people back into work or training
• improve community relations
• help prevent violent extremism.

On Thursday April 23 the Council's Executive will consider a report which recommends a number of local projects for funding.

Councillor John David , Leader of Pendle Council and Chairman of Pendle Partnership, is pleased that this money is being made available to help meet some of the borough's challenges.

He said: "It's very sad that some of our residents live in areas which the government feels are in need of cash.

"But we know there's some excellent work going on across Pendle and by working together we can really make a difference."

Selected projects will help to meet some of the goals set out in Pendle Partnership's exciting plan called Our Pendle Our Future.

These include: 

• getting more than 200 people off benefits and back into employment
• ensuring people from different backgrounds have similar opportunities
• challenging violent extremist beliefs and protecting our communities.

Stephen Barnes, Chief Executive of Pendle Council, said: "Our Council wants the best for local people.

"By working closely with Pendle Partnership we've been able to involve local groups and organisations far better than many other councils up and down the country."

Notes to editors

The Funds are:

• The Working Neighbourhoods Fund
• The Community Cohesion Fund
• The Preventing Violent Extremism Fund

The Working Neighbourhoods Fund will be used to get people back into work or training. It also aims to encourage young people to do something positive with their lives when they reach 16.

The Fund can be used in many ways. For example, helping lone parents, or those who receive Incapacity Benefits, get back into work.

This could be done through training, confidence building or by providing job seeking advice. We could also work with employers to provide placements.

The Community Cohesion Fund aims to promote better relations between people of all ages and backgrounds.

It will be used to make sure that everyone has similar opportunities in life, they know their rights and responsibilities and trust one another and local organisations to act fairly.

The Preventing Violent Extremism Fund will be used to meet the Government's expectations of how councils and their partners will tackle terrorism.

This includes challenging violent extremist ideology, supporting individuals who are being targeted and increasing resilience in communities.