Community Action Group (CAG) Programme CPU 1679

Tender description

Community Action Group (CAG) Oxfordshire Programme ??? CPU 1679 Bidders are invited to tender for the provision of the Community Action Group (CAG) project. The Oxfordshire CAG project delivers targeted community support for grass roots action on waste, climate change and sustainability, carrying the key waste and energy messages from local government out into the community. The network is now the largest of its kind in the UK and regularly reports on good practice to national organisations and national government departments. The project employs 2 CAG Project Managers who provide mentoring, networking support, the funding of small start-up grants to groups and support to them in accessing larger funding opportunities as well as providing insurance cover for group meetings and events. Tenderers are invited to tender for the provision of the Service for a term of 3 years with an option for the Council to extend for up to 2 years, anticipated to commence on 1st December 2015. The Community Action Group programme (CAG) has been running since 2001 and currently supports 64 community groups in Oxfordshire. These groups have a diverse interest in all areas of sustainability ??? including energy, transport, food and biodiversity. Many of the groups have been successful in securing funding from other sources (e.g. Intelligent Energy Europe grants, private gifting and commercialisation of operations, etc.) to enable them to further develop their activities. The Oxfordshire CAG project has a high public and political profile in the County and across the South East. The groups have attracted national interest and press coverage as a flagship community project. Individual CAGs have featured in leading newspaper???s articles and across the BBC on several occasions. The CAGs and the Project have been featured in at least 13 radio broadcasts, 57 print articles and 19 online articles in 14/15. In 2014/15 over ??520,000 (funding and income) was brought into the Oxfordshire economy via the CAGs and more than 27,000 volunteer hours have been contributed. Approximately 50 tonnes of waste, 100,000 kWhs of energy and 227 tonnes of CO2 were saved through CAG activities. Further information about groups currently being supported and their outputs please see the CAG project website - http://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk/