The journey has begun to establish GDP as a Development Trust
….so it can continue to provide opportunities and support the community for years to come.  This is an exciting and important period for the Partnership as it will set the scene for the future.

The story so far…
At a recent meeting the GDP Board agreed the name of the trust to be the John Mansfield Trust.  The name recognises the fact that the John Mansfield Centre will be the trust’s first asset.  The trust board will be resident only and numbers will not exceed 12.  Seven of the current GDP board are to be trustees/directors.  To help fill the remaining five seats on the board a communication strategy is to be developed to ensure local people from across the area have an opportunity to hear in more detail what the trust is about and become involved.  Part of this activity is likely to include community engagement events. 

How are we going to achieve this...
GDP is working with the Development Trusts Associations (DTA), the organisation which helps communities set up development trusts.  This process includes an in depth assessment of GDP to ensure it has robust structures and processes in place to enable it to be operationally sound.  We have fulfilled this part of the process and we are now moving ahead with the next stages which include establishing the trust as a company limited by guarantee with charitable objects.  In simple terms this means that GDP will have the ability to develop an entrepreneurial approach, whilst ensuring the needs of local people are paramount.  This mix of ‘business focus:community roots’ is key in allowing the trust to develop a balanced portfolio of activities to generate sufficient profits to support local projects and social enterprise.

So what is a Development Trust…
They are community owned and led, which means everything they do will ultimately benefit the community they support; they develop community assets so they benefit local people;  cultivate social enterprise aimed predominantly at creating jobs for local residents, improve wealth creation and health in the local community and through these and other activities help to transform communities for the better.