£450,000 set to be handed out to charity and voluntary groups in West Suffolk

A Community Chest investment of more than £450,000 into the work of charities and voluntary groups across West Suffolk will be considered next week.

West Suffolk Council’s Cabinet will discuss the recommendations of the Council’s Grant Working Party when it meets on Tuesday, February 8.

The Grant Working Party has recommended 30 projects and organisations receive funding, offering residents in West Suffolk help with their health and wellbeing, family support as well as counselling and specialist services. Advice and advocacy services, projects designed to help build confidence and skills in young people, community activities, and support groups and support services have also been put forward for funding.

While £466,733 of Community Chest funding has been made available for 2022/23, the council received more than 50 applications for a total close to £1.2m.

The Grant Working Party, made up of a councillors from different political backgrounds, representing different areas of West Suffolk, met and discussed each of the 56 applications received.

Applications were evaluated against the scheme criteria, how the money would be spent, and the number of people it would likely help.

The working party also looked at whether the community need was already being met by similar projects and if other sources of funding had already been applied for.

Some of the 30 recommended by the Grant Working Party, have been put forward to receive full funding, while it is suggested others receive part of what they asked for. All applicants who have not received the full amount that they applied for, will be offered support by the council’s Families and Communities team in applying for other sources of funding.

Jim Thorndyke, chair of the Grant Working Party, said: “We recognise that there are a great many community groups, voluntary organisations and charities in West Suffolk, doing fantastic work to help residents and improve their lives.

“We have no doubt that the pandemic has placed greater demand for some of these services and that has been born out in the volume of grant applications received. We have taken great care to go through each application in detail and to look to ensure that the projects that we help fund, will benefit the lives of residents of all ages across West Suffolk.”

Robert Everitt, cabinet member for Families and Communities, added: “It’s our simple belief that people out in our communities who have some experience of a social issue, often have the best ideas for how to solve them. Our role is to help them get established.

“We have helped many community groups, charities and voluntary organisations to set up both before and during the pandemic. We have done so not just through Community Chest, but also through our councillor locality budgets and other practical support.

“I am immensely proud of that community spirit that we have helped foster – even if it does lead to a huge volume of grant applications.

“I would like to thank councillor Thorndyke and all of the other members of the Grant Working Party for what has no doubt been a tough task and I look forward to discussing their recommendations with my Cabinet colleagues.”