Small Sparks for Stroud?

Key elements from the 'In Community' by In-Control

The aim of a small sparks project is: "To develop a way to fund very small neighbourhood projects using an application form that is so straightforward it could be written on a napkin."

The idea first developed in Seattle where it lead to a massive growth in imaginative local projects like the homeless young people who joined with businesses to create a memorial garden for those young people who had died on the streets, a cultural event called Sub-Sahara Sounds put on by newly arrived communities, a guy with learning disabilities who bought a trolley to deliver magazines to isolated older people etc. Some time ago I was fortunate to hear Jim Diers speak - he was for 14 years the first director of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods from 1988 and still talks lots of sense about how we build communities; Small Sparks is one of the ways that communities came together...




Anyhow there are now various examples around the UK like the Lancashire scheme:
http://www.younglancashire.org.uk/content/small-sparks-grant

I've copied above the key elements from the excellent book 'In Community' by In-Control  - there is a chapter there on Small Sparks by Carolyn Carlson. Anyone working up a Small Sparks scheme should read that! Anyhow this is an idea I've been floating a little locally to see if it could be possible.....it is about igniting the enthusiasm and interest that is already present in communities.