With Central Coast Council’s Community Grants Program set to open for applications on June 1, a series of free workshops and information sessions will be held in coming weeks to help community groups and organisations improve their grant writing skills.
The 2023-24 Community Grants Program will open with $900,000 in annual funding available to support local community groups and organisations to deliver worthwhile projects, programs and events that strengthen the community.
Council Director Community and Recreation Services, Melanie Smith, said now was the time for community groups and organisations to register for a workshop and prepare their applications.
“All projects are valuable to the community and often funding allocation comes down to the strength of the application,” Smith said.
“While we have $900,000 in funding allocated across the three grant programs it is quite competitive with last year’s total funding requested across the three programs reaching more than $1.5M”.
“To ensure the community has the best opportunities to gain funding for their projects, Councils’ grants officers support and host free grant writing workshops, grant Information and one-on-one grant drop-in sessions designed to help applicants better understand the process and improve the quality of their applications.”
Grant writing workshops will be held on: Wednesday, May 10, from 5.30pm to 8pm at the Erina Centre; and on Thursday, May 11, from 10am to 12.30pm at Council’s Wyong administration building.
During these workshops, an independent facilitator will guide community members on how to develop a project plan and funding application to increase the chance of success for not only Council’s grant program but all grant programs.
Grant information sessions also will be held giving guidelines, eligibility, the application process, grant management and timeframes for Council’s Community Grants Program.
These will be held on: Wednesday, May 31, from 5.30pm to 7pm at the Erina Centre; on Thursday, June 1, from 2.30pm to 4pm online; on Wednesday, June 7, from 5pm to 6.30pm online; and on Thursday, June 8, from 1pm to 2.30pm at the Wyong administration building.
Drop-in sessions offering one-on-one discussions with a Council grants officer to strengthen an application in accordance with the grant program guidelines will be held on: Thursday, June 15, from 9.30am to 11.30am at the Wyong administration building; and on Thursday, June 22, from 5pm to 7pm at the Erina Centre.
Council’s 2023-23 Community Grants Program includes: the Community Development Grant Program (applications open June 1-30, with funding up to $20,000 per project available); the Community Events and Place Activation Program (applications open June 1-30 with funding up to $20,000, per activity available); and the Community Support Program (applications remain open throughout the year, with up to $5,000 in funding available per project, per financial year).
For more information on the workshops and information sessions or to register, go to centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/grants.
Source:
Central Coast Council