Hastings Opportunity Area Launches Fresh £250,000 Activities Fund
By Rod Webb
Hastings Opportunity Area (HOA), a Department for Education initiative, launched its latest funding round at a seminar in Horntye Park earlier this month. Local groups and enterprises that provide activities such as art, technology, sport, music, food and outdoor pursuits were invited to apply
for a share of a sum of £250,000 being offered for the delivery of free “enrichment” activities for Hastings’ children and young people.
Hofesh Shechter dance company
This is part of a three-year project, beginning in 2018, to increase social mobility in 12 deprived areas across the country, including Hastings. This latest funding release builds on the work carried out providing similar enrichment courses in 2018 working with primary and secondary schools and colleges as well as community groups
Over the previous year HOA has awarded £350,000 funding for schools and colleges in the area for “enrichment” activities. These have included a trampolining club at Ark Blacklands, a school-wide arts and animation project at Robsack Wood, and a Rainbow Club at Torfield. Sandown school have been running weekly STEM sessions (science, technology, engineering and maths) which offer a fun and hands-on approach to the subjects by creating models and using Lego and craft materials.
In addition, more than £230,000 of funding was awarded to 40 arts, music, sport, outdoors and tech activities for around 1,500 children and young people within the borough. Among the providers is the nationally acclaimed Hofesh Shechter dance company, who are running a series of dance and after-school workshops for secondary school students in Hastings. The launch event earlier this month was attended by over 60 young people, and the summer programme will include two- hour weekly workshops for eight weeks, with four full-day training sessions and five intensive sessions. A final showcase event will take place at Hastings Academy later this summer.
Further grants of up to £10,000 each are also available for projects that run through the coming summer holidays, with others of up to £50,000 for activities that run after school and on weekends during the 2019/20 academic year.
STEM session at Sandown school
Graham Peters, Chair of the HOA Broadening Horizons Working Group, said at the latest launch seminar: “We’re delighted to offer another 12 months of funding for activities taking place within Hastings’ communities. The town is well known as a cultural and creative hub, but many local children and young people do not access what is on offer. That’s why we’re prioritising bids which actively engage with children and young people who don’t usually benefit from enrichment activities.”
Although attempts to improve the lives and prospects of children from deprived communities are always welcome, there have been criticisms about the way this project has been handled. An independent evaluation report undertaken last year within the Department for Education (October 2018) found that the project had taken a top-down approach without sufficient consultation within the communities themselves. Among suggestions for improvements were:
• increased transparency about who is invited to join the partnership board and why.
• local stakeholder engagement encompassing a range of sectors, and different groups within sectors;
• raising the profile of the OA programme from the outset within the local community to seek their commitment and involvement.
There are also growing concerns that the Department for Education should consider extending the timeline of the programme if it is to have a realistic prospect of achieving long term cultural change.
Although local providers have their own individual views, they will not want to be identified as critics while applying for sizeable chunks of financial support. More important is that organisers of the HOA listen and respond to feedback as it is presented.
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