District groups boosted by a bumper year of funding

During 2018/19, the district council awarded more than £550,000 of grant funding to voluntary and community organisations – more than ever before.

This included a £85,000 revenue grant for the Citizen’s Advice Daventry District organisation, helping them to respond to nearly 4,000 enquiries and identify more than £1 million of unclaimed welfare benefits.

Daventry Area Community Transport was given £25,000 to help it provide more than 100,000 passenger trips through its car and minibus schemes and take more than 9,000 bookings for mobility aids through its Shopmobility scheme.

A further £100,000 in revenue grants were also shared between a range of voluntary and community organisations including the Daventry Contact charity, Daventry Volunteer Centre, Time 2 Talk, Green Acres Rural Enterprise, Home Start and mental health charity Mind.

Capital funding totalling £314,500 was shared among 40 groups across the district, helping to deliver community projects with an estimated value of £1.3 million.

A total of 24 community groups shared more than £16,000 to help fund small items of equipment, provide training for volunteers and to cover expenses.

And 28 groups were awarded up to £500 each to deliver one-off community events, providing fun activities for around 13,000 district people, as well as raising about £48,000 for good causes.

Throughout the year the district council's community projects team worked with a range of partners to organise 26 successful activities.

These included a range of events at Daventry Country Park over Easter, Christmas, Halloween and the summer holidays, Sportfest, and the popular Family Cinema Day, which attracted more than 1,500 visitors.

Community projects and initiatives delivered throughout the year included the First World War benches scheme, which saw nearly 40 benches installed across the district, and the Good Neighbours Scheme, which has seen voluntary support networks set up in Moulton, Crick and Welton.

The district council’s community, culture and leisure portfolio holder Councillor Alan Hills said: “We are pleased and proud to support communities across our district through our programme of grants, events and projects.

“We have awarded an unprecedented amount of grants in the last year, helping organisations in the community and voluntary sector meet demand for their services, enabling improvement work on community buildings and facilities, and helping groups put on fundraising events.

“Our capital grant funding enables projects worth five times the grant value to proceed, while for every pound we invest in a community event, local groups typically raise a further £10 for themselves.

“It’s also great to see so many people attending events and initiatives that we put on throughout the year, and I would encourage even more people to get involved and take advantage of what’s being offered.”

For more details about the grants scheme, visit the website www.daventrydc.gov.uk/living/community-grants/