Community projects to get cash boosts
Warwickshire County Council’s North Warwickshire Area Committee has approved several projects at its last meeting which are set to have major benefits for the borough’s communities.
The committee allocates the county council’s Well-being Fund, in North Warwickshire. This source of money is used to support inter-agency work undertaken through the North Warwickshire Community Partnership. The committee has prioritised several themes. Allocations for funds should benefit one of the following categories; education and lifelong learning, community life, health and well-being and the local economy.
The following schemes are all set to receive money from the Well-Being Fund.
Community mural: A summer project to be lead by the Youth Offending Team (YOT) who will work with young offenders to clear the graffiti from a bridge and create a mural depicting an aspect of local history. The area for the mural has yet to be decided. The £1000 grant will help to cover the costs of engaging an artist to work with the young people and materials.
Positive diversionary activities: Noting the positive effect on young people’s behaviour of diversionary activities, the committee has allocated over £6,500 to projects aimed at engaging young people. Targeting 12-25 year olds, the project aims to start in April and will be carried out by North Warwickshire Borough Council’s community development team, working with North Warwickshire’s crime and disorder reduction partnership.
A range of services and sporting pursuits are planned for play areas and known hotspots across North Warwickshire.
Warwickshire County Councillor Ray Sweet, chair of the area committee, said: “Supporting young people in positive activity has many benefits for the community.
“Obviously young people are less inclined to indulge in nuisance or anti-social behaviour if they have some activity to distract them and projects such as these also make them realise how valued they are.”
Other schemes to receive money include:
Cultural diversity event: £1000 has been allocated to support an event aimed at raising awareness and celebrating cultural adversity in the borough. The event will be borouygh wide and held later in the year.
Community activity audit: £10,000 has been contributed towards the cost of creating a baseline of information about community activity within North Warwickshire. The audit will enable a best practice guide for involving people in community activity to be created.
Increasing community involvement: £2,000 has been awarded to help North Warwickshire Community Partnership to create and maintain an induction programme and mentoring for people from the voluntary and community sector wishing toi be involved in the partnership. This will include help for people within this partnership chairing meetings to manage and engage participants.
Councillor Sweet added: “The Well-Being Fund aims to involve all members of North Warwickshire’s communities. I am delighted also that if some of the borough’s rural residents are not getting involved in community activities, we are finding out why that might be so we can address it.”