The Big Leap Project

The Big Leap Project has three core aims and these are:

  1. To build the management capacity and project implementation skills of local community organisations on the West of the Bann areas and thus building a stronger community infrastructure.   By building the capacity of local people through a community development and partnership working approach, individuals will be more able to identify issues in their own area, work together to address those issues, network with others to see how they would have tackled similar issues and influence the way in which the local council, statutory agencies and, ultimately, government affect local peoples lives through best practice, policies and procedures.
  2. The project also aims to enhance the skills of groups so that they become aware of the critical success factors in addressing local need through a partnership approach to community development.  It will assist the groups to choose the correct strategy and partners for their group progression whether it is identifying new project ideas or enhancing the skills to progress the development of existing projects more effectively.
  3. The project aims to raise the individual capacity of group members so that they can be more effective members of their community or voluntary group.By enhancing the skills of individual committee members and volunteers they will also become more effective members of society and will have more opportunities for personal and professional development as a result.

All of the groups within the project have worked incredibly hard this year and every group within the project has successfully secured of funding which has enabled them to carry out a range of voluntary activities within their communities.

Several major initiatives have been undertaken in the last 12 months including


  • a Research Study for the Churchlands Community Resource Centre for people living with chronic alcohol problems. The Research project has been undertaken to identify a community-based strategy to provide support for people with long term alcohol problems within the West Bann area.
  • an intergenerational heritage project whereby Primary 5 children from Killowen and St John’s Primary Schools have come together with senior citizen’s from the Churchlands Ward to exchange experiences about school days.  This group is working with children’s author Declan Carville to produce a book which will hopefully be published in the autumn. 


Training offered through the project this year has included a range of workshops and training opportunities based around youth work.  Many of the groups within the project work with young people and the aim of the training was to raise professionalism.  Training offered in partnership with the NEELB Youth Service included Child Protection, Dealing with ADD/ADHD and a Games Workshop.  A training calendar is currently being designed for the spring of next year and will include a range Community Development training to increase the skills and capacity of volunteers within the community to deliver a wider range of projects. CRUN would like to thank all of the volunteers and management committee members involved in the above groups who give so selflessly of their time and energy to the various projects they are involved in and who have made their communities a better place to live in as a result.