The Council Matters Committee considered the applications on 10th October. It was agreed that due to oversubscription of grant funding, the successful applications should focus on helping with the cost of living crisis. The supported projects will be spent in the interests of the area of its inhabitants and will benefit them in a manner commensurate with expenditure, as per the spending powers under section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972. The Council Matters Committee resvolved unanimously to allocate £25,042 to Community Grant applicants listed in the attached document, £14,042 of which is considered S137 expenditure.
10 local community groups will receive grants worth a total of £25,000 from Totnes Town Council this winter. Councillors have allocated funding giving priority to projects that will provide additional support for people in Totnes during the cost-of-living crisis.
The following projects have been awarded funding:
- Apricot Centre Wellbeing Service, Gather and Nourish – £1,620 (100% of funding requested). Pilot workshop/courses in cooking sustainably, healthily and with zero waste.
- Be Buckfastleigh, Hello Summer 2023 – £2,000 (20% of funding requested). Activities and Food for Children and families in the school holidays.
- Caring Town, We Care About … The Cost of Living Crisis – £3,100 (100% of funding requested). Programme of positive activities and opportunities for community in warm spaces.
- Citizens Advice South Hams, Totnes Community Outreach Programme – £7,000 (100% of funding requested). Continuation of weekly presence in The Mansion and St John’s Community Café, and training of more volunteers to help with telephone enquiries. Dedicated case worker for Totnes Caring who help individuals with applications – 80 clients have seen incomes increase (totalling more than £61K). In year to end of Sep 2022 Citizens Advice helped 474 individuals in Totnes with more than 3,300 issues.
- Participate Arts CIC, Creative Connections Round 2 – £1,000 (100% of funding requested). Workshop sessions in Bridgetown aimed at isolated parents and carers, vulnerable adults, those with mental health issues, and older people. Delivered as part of the St John’s community cafe Mindful Making group.
- Resilient Lives, Pop up Pirates – £1,122 (20% of funding requested). Young persons business start-up and entrepreneurial skills programme to aid youth employability (14-25 year olds). 3 cycles of: 5 weeks training, 1 day per week for 10 participants to attempt to run an income generating pizza business from The Mill and The Mansion.
- Stepping Stones Totnes Community Food Hub – £2,400 (80% of funding requested). Supporting a scheme where for £2.50 a week members can choose 10 items from the shelves and 3 items from a short date table to help overcome the stigma (held by some people) of using a foodbank. Stepping Stones is also looking to develop a community craft and friendship group in a warm space.
- Totnes Caring, Community Transport – £4,000 (100% of funding requested). Ongoing transport provision for vulnerable people in the town, including those with restricted mobility and who are clinically vulnerable. Volunteer drivers take clients to medical appointments, which have risen in number since the pandemic, and to social activities to combat loneliness – expect to assist 600 clients (some with repeated assistance needs) in next 6 months.
- Traveller Space, Moving Forward – Supporting Gypsies & Travellers in Totnes – £800 (16% of funding requested). Emotional and crisis support for members of the gypsy and traveller community, including mental health therapy sessions (5 sessions per person, 10 people). Funding to cover 6 months’ rent, food/welfare hub items, therapy costs.
- TRAYE (Totnes Rural Area Youth Engagement Project), The Totnes Young People’s Free Zone – £2,000 (53% of funding requested). Pilot project to offer low level and non-crisis mental health support from their peers, including a safe space and one-to-one sessions with trained youth worker staff.
Applications for funding were open during September 2022 and in total 21 local organisations put forward requests for over £78,000 of support.
Cllr Emily Price, Mayor of Totnes said: “We’re very fortunate to have so many excellent community groups supporting our residents and making Totnes a better place to live and work.
“We were heavily over-subscribed in this current round of grants and it was very difficult to choose which groups would get funding. Whilst we decided to give priority to those projects directly helping to counteract the cost-of-living crisis, we felt strongly we wanted to be able to help all the projects. As a result, we are actively working with those applicants who were unsuccessful or which we were only able to give partial funding to. Together we will try to identify other funding streams which could enable them to bring their projects to life.”
This latest round of grants follows on from £24,000 allocated in April 2022. Since 2020, Totnes Town Council has also supported projects across Totnes to access funding worth over £545,000 from government grant schemes and other sources.
If you’d like to find out more, please email: community@totnestowncouncil.gov.uk