What is ASC?
The Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) is the national centre for delivering the skills and knowledge needed to make better places.
We work to inspire, motivate and influence people across the public, private and voluntary sectors who are involved in creating communities.
» Find out more about our work, and our business plan for 2007-08.
What do you do?
- We raise awareness of sustainable communities.
- We help build capacity by giving existing professionals new skills, and by encouraging others to take up relevant careers.
- We set standards and improve professional performance by highlighting and sharing examples of good practice.
- We influence policy.
- We work with organisations critical to the success of future communities.
» Find out which areas we'll be tackling in 2007-08.
Why were you created?
In April 2004, the Egan Review highlighted a range of issues that hindered the development of lasting, sustainable communities.
One of the Review's main recommendations was the creation of a National Centre for Sustainable Community Skills, to share information about the best ways of transforming local places, and encourage different disciplines to work together.
ASC was created in February 2005 to meet that need.
How are you funded?
We have:
- An annual grant of £10.5 million (until 2008) from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
- £2.92 million of capital funding from the Northern Way (led by the three Northern Regional Development Agencies - Yorkshire Forward, One NorthEast and the Northwest Regional Development Agency)
How are you accountable?
ASC is led by a steering board that has corporate responsibility for ensuring we fulfil our aims and objectives. The Board was appointed by Ministers and is accountable to Government for our performance.
Who do you work with?
We work with a wide range of organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors which are critical to the success of future communities.
» Find out more about our partners.
I have a proposal - do you have funding available?
We are not a grant-giving body, and don't have a standardised application procedure.
However, we are interested in working with organisations that share our aims and priorities. If you have a proposal you want to discuss, please email us.
You can also find information about other funding opportunities on these sites:
What makes a sustainable community?
Read the sustainable communities FAQs, and watch our video interviews.
