By the people of Revoe, for the people of Revoe!

About Us:

Revoelution is funded by the Big Lottery. Revoe was assigned £1 million in 2014 to spend on activities or projects that addressed issues identified by residents. The money all has to be spent by the end of 2025 – we still have (Sept 2024) around £200,000 to spend over the next two years.

The Revoelution Partnership is not a company or a charity, it’s simply an informal resident-led group, so it doesn’t have a bank account. We’re therefore hosted by a ‘Local Trusted Organisation’ who employ the Revoelution staff and hold our accounts and contracts; that organisation is Blackpool Coastal Housing.

However, the Partnership are determined to carry on Revoelution’s good work after the end of Big Local funding, and we have therefore become a registered charity (number 1209564).

The Revoelution Area

The project focuses on a small area of Blackpool known as Revoe, around Central Drive. The boundary runs from Ribble Road/Palatine Road and the King Edward pub at the North end to Westmorland Ave and Revoe Learning Academy at the South, and from Park Road at the East side to Kent Road/Seasiders Way at the West. All our activities must primarily benefit people who live in this area.

Big Local Nationally

Big Local is run by Local Trust, which is working with over £200million from the Big Lottery Fund and a range of partners providing expert advice and support for residents.

The four programme outcomes for Big Local are:

1.      Communities will be better able to identify local needs and take action in response to them.

2.      People will have increased skills and confidence, so that they continue to identify and respond to needs in the future.

3.      The community will make a difference to the needs it prioritises.

4.      People will feel that their area is an even better place to live.

The main requirement of any Big Local project is that it is community-led. A key principle of the programme is that people who live and work in an area best understand its problems and assets.

History

In 2012 Blackpool Council’s Neighbourhoods Team worked with the Big Lottery to identify the area of the town best suited to be the focus for Blackpool’s Big Local project. Revoe was chosen because of its high levels of deprivation. Out of over 32,000 neighbourhoods in England identified by the government using a range of measurements on health, income, crime, employment and education (indices of multiple deprivation), the area around the George pub on Central Drive is the second most deprived in the country.

The first meeting was held in September 2012, and from that meeting a Steering Group was formed, chaired by a local Councillor and including around a dozen residents. Revoelution was originally based at a small retail premises on Bethesda Square. The steering group, assisted by Blackpool Council and Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde CVS, ran consultations and surveys that identified residents’ priorities: Crime, Environment, Business Improvement, Housing, Young People and Health. In 2014 the group formed a Partnership and created a Community Profile which outlined the needs and makeup of Revoe. This led to the first Plan for Revoelution spending – the first fully-funded year was 2016.