North Herts Council has awarded just under £100,000 (£99,998) to local community groups in a bid to help build the capacity of the voluntary sector – supporting families, expanding mental health services, increasing volunteer capacity, museum education, additional allotments and more!
Organisations from across the district were invited to apply for a grant of £5,000 to £20,000 to expand a particular area or service – such as helping people access employment, education or training and supporting people’s mental and physical health. The fund of £100k from the council’s reserves – a pot of money set aside as a contingency against unexpected expenditure – was allocated to eight projects*:
£19,610 to Create Community and Green Care at Norton, both based in Letchworth. This was a collaborative application; the two organisations have worked alongside each other for more than three years with many of Create Community’s participants going on to volunteer at Green Care projects. Create Community will use their money towards employing a volunteer manager, and Green Care to improve grounds maintenance and expand their locally grown flower social enterprise.
£17,500 to Growing Resilience in Teens, a registered charity in Hitchin, towards hiring a fundraiser to develop their fundraising capacity.
£16,600 to The Creative Mental Health Charity PoetsIN, which currently mainly works in Hitchin, to cover the costs of a salaried project worker to expand their extensive programme across the district, which is structured so that it continues to offer ongoing layers of support.
£12,500 to Baldock Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Association towards redeveloping land in Baldock to create 30 half-plots to meet local demand.
£11,036 to Active in the Community, a CIC covering the whole district, to develop a comprehensive database of active sports clubs in North Herts, and look specifically into clubs’ challenges with a focus on volunteering, to help create more sustainable clubs.
£9,500 to Green Heat Coop to develop and launch a home energy and retrofit advice service to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, initially in the Royston area with a view to expanding to all of North Herts.
£7,052 to Home-Start Royston and South Cambs towards training new volunteers who will support and visit local vulnerable families struggling with diverse and complex issues facing possible crisis situations, such as family breakdown and children being taken into care.
£6,200 to Royston Museum Trust towards an educational consultant to develop sessions aimed at local Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils, to strengthen their education offering to local schools and other educational groups.
Cllr Alistair Willoughby, Executive Member for Community & Partnerships, who recently approved the funding under delegated decision, said: “With financial pressures hitting so many of us, we made a bold decision to allocate £100,000 to help local voluntary organisations as an investment in our local communities. A great deal of applications were rigorously assessed, and it is wonderful to see this money going to cash-strapped organisations to expand and improve their incredible work for our communities, now and into the future. From supporting vulnerable families and expanding much-needed mental health services, training and increasing dedicated teams of volunteers, ensuring our next generations learn and preserve our heritage, to providing additional allotments and outside spaces which we know are in popular demand – ultimately this will empower our local communities and improve the lives of our residents.”
Cllr Dominic Griffiths, deputy Executive Member for Community & Partnerships, added: “We were oversubscribed with applications so it’s just a shame we couldn’t allocate more funding to our wonderful voluntary and community sector. We do provide small community grants via our local Area Forums, and if groups are struggling please contact us as we can potentially help find alternative funding.”
*subject to completion of the necessary formalities
More information: Grants
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