Community Grants for July 2012

It is hard to believe another month has past since the last posting, and with summer finally arriving a number of grantees will be benefitting from their grant, and the weather.

Amongst these will be the Polish Over 60’s Club, St Michael Sixty Plus Club, Senior Friends of Plinston and The Asian Day Centre. All four groups were awarded grants towards day visits to places such as Southend, Clacton and Aylesford in Kent. Hoping to travel is Letchworth resident Matthew Priestley as he was awarded a grant of £300 towards the £3,600 he is trying to raise to participate in a World Challenge Global Expedition to Tanzania and Kenya in 2013.

Moving closer to home, Furniture Link, a charity based in Saunders Close, was awarded £500 to support a furniture restoration project. The concept is to purchase basic tools and materials to enable volunteers to restore the furniture rather than lose it to landfill. Furniture Link provides good quality low cost furniture to local residents. There showroom is open most days and they can be contacted on 01462 683800. Keeping on the theme of furniture the Corner Bridge Club was awarded £100 to help them purchase three new bridge tables.

The Grange Baptist Church applied for a grant of £598 to support the Adventure Holiday Club they will be running on the grange estate between the 20 and 23 of August. The holiday club has been running since 1973 and the committee agreed the full amount of £598. The club for children aged 4 – 11 will run at the Grange Community Hall between 10am and 12pm. Staying with recreation and leisure, Letchworth Garden City Eagles was awarded a grant of £1,010 towards 50% of the costs of a set of portable 9 v 9 goals for their U11/U12 teams. The FA recently reviewed junior football and decided 9 v 9 games for under 11/12 teams was the best way to support their development. Due to restrictions on space, the Eagles decided portable goals would be the best way to manage space and ensure a quality experience for all teams. The committee was pleased to support the club and wished it every success with the new format.

The Committee also agreed a grant of £3,970 to Friends of Learn IT for a project aimed at children aged between three and four and their families. The project will focus on developing children’s skills in language and communication. It will also involve working with parents to develop their skills to enable them to continue to support their child’s development when the programme has finished. This is an exciting pilot project and we are looking forward to working closely with Learn IT to understand the impact the project has on the children and their families.

The committee deferred an application for little Annie training equipment to support the teaching of basic and emergency first aid in schools. The committee was keen to understand more about the potential broader community uses of this equipment for training sessions in the community. Initial thoughts were around St John and also clubs where first aid was a necessary part of leaders training such as sports clubs, scouts or brownies. A final decision will be made at the September meeting so if anyone from any of these groups has any ideas about how the equipment could benefit them do get in touch.

Finally if you are interested in applying for a grant or would like to discuss ideas you have and how suitable they may be for funding, my contact details are alastair.stewart@letchworth.com or telephone 01462 476037.