I Never Promised You A Rose Garden!

Today wasn’t the best on the work front.

We heard that the 3-year funding application which we’d submitted to the Lottery ‘Reaching Communities’ programme has been turned down. We’d worked hard on it and believed that we’d shown exactly how we met the criteria, how we had the track-record and skills to achieve demonstrable outputs and outcomes over the next 3 years and how we know there is a need for what we do (and for the additional things we were proposing to do). But, alas, to no avail.

We still have one more big funding application awaiting a verdict, and we hope/dread to hear the outcome of that within the next month or so. If that’s also rejected then we will probably have to shut up shop at the end of April.

What’s even more galling is that in the last few weeks we’ve secured £23,000 in smaller grants for specific project work that we can ONLY deliver if we attract core funding for the organisation. If we don’t, we’ll have to turn the project money down as there’ll be nobody to manage, co-ordinate and deliver the work.

The whole situation is frustrating and dispiriting. But we can only hope that it’ll all come good in the end.

I’m just grateful that I have such a fantastic co-pilot on this whole turbulent flight! Without Sarah, I know I’d be coping far less well with all the uncertainty. She’s not only a brilliant colleague but also a great friend. She was even prepared to smile for this picture today when I know she was feeling as gloomy as I was. What a trooper!

Here’s k.d. lang’s excellent rendition of ‘Rose Garden’... https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zq1fFACKvXk live in Sydney. I well recall seeing her perform it at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on the same tour, back in 1997. What a great night it was!

(Thanks for all the love for Sunday’s Blip! Apologies for not having got round to thanking everyone individually but I really do appreciate the stars and hearts! Xx)