The Lee Harrison Trust (LHT) is a multimillion-dollar Australian charitable foundation that was established in 2006 for charitable purposes. It was named after Lee Harrison who became extremely rich after he sold his mining company in Eastern Australia. After his death, all his money was transferred to a charitable foundation. The aims of LHT are to improve social and community wellbeing in communities that have a higher than average level of poverty. The objectives of LHT are to support community projects in poorer communities that provide care, welfare and education for young people; and support the aged and infirm. To further these aims and objectives, LHT offers grants of up to $500,000 every year to community groups who can demonstrate that they have a viable project that will help to build relationships by breaking down community barriers and working together to create safe, vibrant and healthy communities.
Greyville is a small town 10km north of Blue City, the capital of Eastern Australia. It has 20,000 residents. Geographically there is now a clear divide between the older areas of the town which often contain poor families, dilapidated housing and have higher than average crime rate; and the new housing estates that have been built on the outskirts of Greyville. These new housing estates provide high quality commuter housing, shops and recreational facilities for professional workers from Blue City. By contrast, many of the families who live in the poorer parts of Greyville suffer from lower than average incomes, higher than average unemployment, and higher than average health issues.
Although the State of Eastern Australia and Greyville Council provide schools and community facilities in all parts of Greyville, the ones in the poorer parts of Greyville always seem to lack investment and are perceived to be of lower quality than the ones in the areas where new housing has been built. The older and poorer areas of Greyville have 3 food banks, and it is noticeable more young and old homeless people sleep on the streets of Greyville each night compared to 10 years ago. Greyville Council has statistics that show alcohol and substance abuse is higher in the poorer areas of Greyville, and this contributes to a general perception of poverty in some areas of Greyville.

June Green is a local elected politician for one of the poor parts of Greyville. She believes that while Eastern Australia and Greyville Council are investing money to improve facilities in the poorer parts of Greyville, much could be done by the residents themselves. She has the support of 10 businesses in Greyville to submit a funding application for up to $500,000 from LHT to improve social and community wellbeing in the poorer parts of Greyville. The businesses have agreed that they will match any sum provided by LHT.
June Green believes that the nature and details of the proposed project should come from the community themselves, rather than being mandated by her. She views her role as being able to mobilise official support and encouragement to any proposed project, and to ‘make things happen’ if the project encounters any official resistance during its execution. As might be expected, June Green knows that not everyone agrees with her. A local campaigner called Jan April disputes everything that June Green says. Jan April says that the poor community are helpless, and all projects should be directed and funded by the government, and not by charity.
By contrast, Greyville Council itself has adopted a position that is neutral. The chief executive of the council has stated that all initiatives that can help the poorer community should be welcome. Unfortunately Greyville Council does not have any more funds to help for the next 2 years, and the government of Eastern Australia does not view Greyville as a state priority funding area.
As a recently graduated project manager, you have been asked to engage with the communities in Greyville to develop a project proposal that can secure a grant of up to $500,000 and then get an equal sum from the businesses. All these funds would be used to improve social and community wellbeing in the poorer communities of Greyville. Your project sponsor is Dan Black, the office manager for June Green. He has asked you for an outline business case for a project that use the money raised to make some improvements to the older areas of Greyville. Dan Black is very busy in his normal job and has left it up to you to propose a viable project in consultation with local people. He wants it to be based on research for similar successful schemes that could address some of the issues faced by local people in the poorer communities. Dan Black tells you that you should not try and solve all the problems because this will not be possible, but you should try and develop a proposal that is high visibility and impactive.
June Green has created a project board that comprises of herself, the project sponsor, representatives from the local sponsoring businesses, and 2 members of the community.

Assignment Tasks
Assignment Part 1 – Group outline business case and Panopto video
This is a group assignment. You should find other students to work with. Each group should contain no more than 4 students (minimum 2 students). You MUST ask your instructor/lecturer to create a group for you on Blackboard. If you are not part of a group, you will not be able to complete this assignment because the submission link will not be visible to you.
For this assignment, assume that your group has been asked by the project sponsor to create the outline business case (OBC). This document should set out what your preliminary views are regarding your proposed project. The OBC should contain the information needed to help the project board to decide whether to turn your research into a formal funding application to LHT. Your OBC should state the envisaged outcomes, benefits and potential risks associated with your proposal. You have also been asked to make a short video featuring all members of your project team explaining your OBC and your proposed project.
Please refer to any of the material that is available to you in the assignment’s Blackboard folder. You are free to make up any information that you don’t have. As a minimum, your outline business case should include the following headings:
• Executive Summary: A short overview of the Business Case for the project board
• Project Scope: A summary of what your team views as the scope of the project at this early stage
• Project Assumptions
• Project Constraints
• Project Dependencies (“This project depends on the following…”)
• Reasons: Reasons for doing the project
• Business Options: Including do nothing, do the minimum, and do something
• Expected Benefits: Details of each benefit and how and when it can be measured
• Expected Dis-Benefits: Details of outcomes that are viewed as negative by one or more stakeholders
• Timescales: Project starts and ends, and when benefits will be realised
• Costs: High level cost for project plus expected on-going maintenance costs after the project (you can invent this information)
• Investment Appraisal: ROI information / calculation (costs v. benefits) – (you can invent this information)

• Major Risks: A summary of the major risks facing the project
You are free to use a suitable template that you might find on the internet, but you should state in your assignment where the template came from. You are free to adapt the template if you wish. Alternatively you can create your own outline business case template.
In the video you should explain your business case – say why have you added the various elements, explain how the business case links in with what you know about the strategy, and maybe even explain what you think it’s limitations are. Your video should be recorded via Panopto, and all members of your group MUST be filmed speaking to camera, and all must have an equal speaking role. The total length of the video should not exceed 10 minutes. Any content beyond 10 minutes will not be assessed. You should record the Panopto video several days before the assignment due date to allow you to address any errors in creating it or submitting it.