Community-led action in Dover

Dover Big Local is a freindly and easy to access organisation run by local people for the benefit of Dover residents, businesses and students. Our activities include projects that mainly support health and wellbeing. We  run groups for people of all ages from parents and children to fitness for older people, and for all kinds of interests and skills including digital inclusion through our IT group, model making, cookery skills and our Dover Den men’s group. We deliver projects through facilitators, host peer-led groups and work in partnership with other organisations including Kent Wildlife Trust for environmental education, Take Off for mental health and Sage Network for our community garden. We have two hubs in the Charlton Centre, High Street, Dover that provide support, training, and networking opportunities, which help residents access services, develop plans to improve their area and empower them to find solutions that work to make Dover a more vibrant and attractive place to live, work and study. We also work in local schools, green spaces and organise events in partners’ spaces. Any Dover resident, business or organisation can become a member of friend of Dover Big Local to support our work.

Dover Big Local Project

Dover Big Local Project is led by a committee drawn from Friends – individuals and organisations that support the aims of the project and want to help it to thrive. It is currently funded by a mixture of grants supported by some direct income from groups, classes and events. Our major funding is currently from a three year grant from Reaching Communities, a National Lottery Community Fund initiative. As of March 2026 there are

How did Dover Big Local begin?
Developing from he London Road Community Association, Dover Big Local was entrusted with £1m Lottery in 2015. This funding was spent on central Dover projects over the following 10 years to directly deliver ambitious and effective projects and provide grant funding to exiting and new groups and projects in Dover that aligned with the project’s aims. Projects were delivered in the following areas:

• Business and Tourism
• Green Spaces
• Arts and Culture
• Health and Wellbeing
• Communications

The ‘Big Local’ National Project

Big Local nationally was launched by the Big Lottery Fund in July 2010. £200m of investment supports 150 small urban and rural communities throughout the UK so they can each come together to make their areas even better places to live. Dover was selected for funding because the town may not have been very successful in gaining funding and resources in the past. Through Big Local, managed by Local Trust, Dover will receive at least £1m Lottery funding over 10 years, along with support, training, and networking opportunities, to help residents develop plans to improve their area and empower them to find solutions that work to make Dover an even more vibrant and attractive place to live, work and play.

Dover’s Plan has worked

The Dover Big Local team worked with local people to discover their the views and ambitions about the future of the town. Focus groups met to put the ideas into a plan required by National Lottery to allow access to Dover’s £1 million funding. Dover’s plan was approved by the national Big Local organisation in 2015 and is has been put into action. Projects in the arts, green spaces and environment, sports and leisure, economy and tourism and communication have all made a differnce in Dover.

What are the Vision & the Plan?

To create Dover’s Big Local Plan a Vision document was created. It was a description of what Dover people said they like and dislike about Dover today and most importantly what we would like it to be like in the future. Although a lot of ideas have been collected to develop Dover’s Plan, we will keep asking Dover’s people what they want to see happening throughout the Dover Big Local project, as priorities will change over the ten years of the project.
The Plan was further developed from the ideas in the Vision document and includes the things we all are able to agree to build upon. However it is not “set in stone” and was constantly revised to suit Dover’s needs. Both the Vision and Plan needed to be submitted to Local Trust who have managed the Project for national Lottery nationally. Strict financial and circumstantial reporting has been required for the funding to be released bi-annually or quarterly when the actions promised in the previous period of the Plan could be shown to have been delivered.

Dover Big Local CIC

The terms of all national Big Local grant funding required each awarded area’s delivery organisation to have another organisation oversee its banking and reporting. This organisation is called its Locally Trusted Organisation (LTO). The LTO was usually an established charity or management organisation with the experience to handle a large amount of funding and the reporting needed for it to be drawn down from central funds as needed. Dover Big Local CIC was set up to take over the role of LTO when the original LTO for Dover decided to end its contract. The Community Interest Company has four directors who are responsible to the Dover Big Local Project’s committee. After Covid, funding in addition to the original lottery funding was offered by various organisations and local government to help with Covid recovery and Dover Big Local CIC began to succeed in gaining funds which have meant many new projects could be started. The National Programme has always required there to be legacy plans – ideas for what will happen when the lottery money runs out. Dover Big Local CIC will become the legacy organisation for Dover Big Local Project and is seeking grant funding to continue to run directly delivered projects from the hub and in the community. There are future plans to set up a Charitable company known as a CIO, as this will allow access to Charity-only funding. Once this is set up the CIC will return to administrative purposes only.

Big Local Needs YOU!

Dover Big Local brings exciting new projects and improvement to existing initiatives to Dover. It’s YOUR town so now is the time to get involved! Whether you want to join the partnership, have an idea for a project for Dover Big Local, help out in our hub or at our events, or just want to keep up to date with how Dover Big Local is progressing, we need you. From highlighting local issues to offering a few hours help everyone’s contribution is important.