Social investment provides councils with an innovative way to support local charities

A pioneering tie-up between the country’s longest running social investment fund, CAF Venturesome, and Oxford City Council has provided a new charity with the finance necessary to launch in the current climate of funding cuts.
 
The Council has acted as a guarantor to a £115,000 loan that CAF Venturesome has provided to Arts at the Old Fire Station.  The funding provides working capital to the charity as it occupies Oxford’s old fire station which has been redeveloped to become a hub for the arts and a centre to help homeless people in the city. 

The centre will include a shop and gallery showcasing work by mainly local artists, a theatre, dance studio and workshops.  The charity will be working closely with the national charity Crisis, who will use the venue to provide an accredited education, training and employment centre for the homeless and vulnerably housed people as well as a social enterprise café providing training and experience for homeless people.

Arts at the Old Fire Station and Crisis Skylight launch with an open day on Saturday 5 November featuring performances by actors, musicians and dancers alongside exhibitions featuring the past, present and future of the Fire Station.
 
The loan will be repaid through a mixture of grantmaking and trading income that the project is expected to raise.
 
Casey Lord from CAF Venturesome said: “This shows that despite being forced to slash billions of pounds from their budgets, local authorities across the country can still support the charitable sector and their local communities if they are innovative.
 
“We hope that in the current climate of cuts, more councils will consider using guarantees as an innovative way to help charities.”
 
Jeremy Spafford of Arts at the Old Fire Station said: “Collaboration between charities, social enterprises and commercial partners is key and we’re delighted that financial collaboration between the council, ourselves and CAF Venturesome has enabled us to secure the working capital we need to get started.  We couldn’t go to traditional lenders for this project and are delighted that they’re on board to help us deliver a vibrant new arts community to Oxford and to ease the city’s homeless problems at the same time.  We can’t wait to get started.”

More information on the Arts at the Old Fire Station project can be found on their website www.oldfirestation.org.uk.