PR Date: Tuesday, 16 March 2021 - 11:45am
North Herts District Council (NHDC)’s Letchworth committee has awarded grant funding to Open Art Box CIC, Transition Town Letchworth and Wilbury and Icknield School Parents Association at its virtual meeting on 10 March 2021.
Art Box CIC were awarded a grant of £2,500 to assist the group with delivering home workshop packs for people living with dementia and their care givers who are shielding at home during the pandemic. The packs, delivered weekly, contain art materials, instructions and the tools needed to aid accessibility.
Art Box CIC has been in operation since 2019 and began providing the packs in April 2020. Fifteen families in North Herts have been receiving the packs, the majority of those live in Letchworth. The funding will allow the project to increase this to twenty households.
Christina Armstrong, Director and Visual Artist at Open Art Box CIC said: “We are incredibly grateful for this funding from NHDC. It enables us to continue supporting local people living with dementia and their carers, through our Home Art Workshop packs. With these packs we provide weekly creative projects, telephone calls and doorstep visits, supporting people's wellbeing at this extremely challenging time.”
Transition Town Letchworth were awarded £400 so they can kickstart the Woolgrove Family Learning Allotment project which began last year, just before lockdown.
The project, aimed at families who live on the Jackman’s estate, is designed to teach families how to look after an allotment. Once they feel confident in growing their own food, they are then offered their own allotment. Two families who participated in the programme have already gone on to do this, two more families are established on the educational allotment, and there is space for two more families to get involved.
Covid-19 restrictions have meant that fundraising activities that would have supported this educational project could not be delivered, therefore the group approached the Council for support.
Transition Town Letchworth are a local group of volunteers who are working to build a sustainable Letchworth.
Diane Ketcher, Trustee at Transition Town Letchworth said: “I am very pleased to be awarded this grant by NHDC as it will enable the Family learning Allotment project on the Jackman's estate, to continue and grow (pardon the pun). As a trustee of Transition Town Letchworth I formed the idea of an allotment where local families could learn together how to grow their own fruit and veg back in 2019. The council donated the plot and LGCHF gave us a generous grant to set it up. This money will be spent on more topsoil, seeds, and other garden sundries. Please contact ttletchworth@gmail.com for more information.”
The Wilbury & Icknield School Parents Association (WISPA) were awarded £2000 to install a portacabin on site (subject to planning permission).
The school already collects materials for several TerraCycle recycling streams, supported by Transition Town Letchworth. However, their ability to recycle materials is limited by having insufficient space to sort and store the waste. Therefore, the school requested funding from the Council to use towards the purchase of a portacabin which will be located in the grounds of Wilbury Junior School.
Not only will the portacabin be used for storage and as a sorting centre for TerraCycle, it will also be used as a base for the children’s’ environmental clubs and activities and will be for use by community groups outside school hours.
Cllr Helen Oliver, Deputy Chair of NHDC’s Letchworth Committee said: “I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to support these initiatives, which I hope will bring individuals and communities together to boost wellbeing in Letchworth, as well as reducing the amount of plastic being sent to landfill”.
If you represent an independent and not-for-profit organisation working for the benefit of local communities in North Hertfordshire and you think your organisation could benefit from a community grant, go to our website here for more information: www.north-herts.gov.uk/home/community/grants/community-grants
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