Twin Towns UK – A Flourishing Towns Initiative
Pauline Radcliffe, Project Manager of Twin Towns UK, shares with us the Carnegie Trusts’ fresh approach to the well-established ‘twinning’ concept.
Do you belong to a small provincial town in Scotland? What will the development of ‘City Regions’ on Scottish policy agenda mean for your home town? Will City Regions mean more focus on the city and even less on the geographies surrounding it, which will get further left behind? Or are City Regions an opportunity to see a more integrated approach to economic development, hard and soft infrastructure and the connecting of people and place?
Whatever your views on the current policy landscape, at Carnegie UK Trust we believe that towns are critical to the future economic prosperity of the U.K., sustaining and revitalising what the Centre for Local Economic Strategies(CLES) recently called ‘good local society’. ‘Twin Towns UK’ is the latest of our series of Flourishing Towns initiatives which aims to take a fresh approach to the well-established ‘twinning’ concept, by pairing towns across the UK with similar characteristics or socio-economic challenges, to consider how to make positive change a reality in their communities.
Twin Towns UK will support – through finance and expert advice – up to 10 towns to trial bilateral ‘twinning’ arrangements over an 18 month period. Applications are invited until 25 November 2016 from interested organisations that represent their town in some capacity, that know the challenges their town is facing and want to find solutions through collaboration.
With Carnegie UK support, twinned towns will work together to identify specific shared actions that address a challenge common to both places, receive joint socio-economic planning support and have access to additional small ‘catapult’ funds to start delivering entrepreneurial activity that makes change happen. We’re looking for applications led by voluntary non-statutory organisations which are committed to working in partnership across all sectors. Take a look at our straightforward application guidance and short application form and contact me at TwinTowns@carnegieuk.org to discuss your ideas.
Pauline Radcliffe
Project Manager
Twin Towns UK
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