Woodley Town Council approves new grants available to groups and organisations supporting young people in Woodley

Youth Grants are now available to assist and facilitate projects that reach, engage and support young people (those aged 21 and under) in Woodley and provide them with better life chances. 

Organisations are welcome to apply for an amount which will normally be capped at £3,000. However, all applications, including those for amounts in excess of this, will be considered on their own merits. 

Youth grants will be considered by the Leisure Services Committee at its scheduled meetings throughout the year, with a recommendation made to the Strategy & Resources Committee for final approval of all grant awards. Successful recipients will be expected to attend a meeting of the Leisure Services Committee to provide feedback on how the grant funds have achieved the project aims. 

Cllr Darren Smith, Chairman of the Leisure Services Committee is pleased to be part of this scheme to help the young people of Woodley. 

“Woodley Town Council is keen to support youth initiatives with this new grant scheme, especially where help is needed to support vulnerable young people in the area. I very much look forward to considering grant requests, which will make a real difference to those younger members of our community,” he said. 

Cllr Keith Baker, Leader of Woodley Town Council, agrees.

“For many years Woodley Town Council have provided grants to Charities and individuals every year. This has provided financial support to many Woodley residents over the years, which is great. However, the Town Council, through sound financial management, finds itself in a solid financial position, so the timing is good to extend this concept to an area which we know is close to many residents’ hearts. The new grants will be available to support the youth of Woodley, especially those who are hard to reach and those who are disadvantaged. By making it a total separate grant with its own budget means the money will be totally ringfenced for the youths of Woodley.  As Leader of the Council, I am incredibly proud of this development and once again Woodley Town Council is at the forefront of supporting our youths,” he said.

Guidelines

The youth support service grant award guidelines and criteria, which were approved at the recent Strategy & Resources Committee meeting in September, outline which groups and organisations can apply for the grants and the process involved. 

The Council will prioritise the following areas: 

• Financially assist services that meet the needs of our vulnerable young people 
• Funding initiatives that tackle crime and anti-social behaviour through supporting young people 
• Funding initiatives that assist young people in gaining employment, education and training. 

In considering the applications preference will be given to: 

• Locally organised organisations/groups, rather than national groups (local branches of national bodies will be counted as locally organised)
• Groups/organisations where Woodley residents are the primary beneficiaries of the group/organisation’s activities
• Requests for grant funding that identify specific items or projects, rather than request for a contribution to running costs
• Requests where the Council’s contribution would make a significant impact on the gross income of the organisation/group. 

The Council will not normally award grants for costs that: 

• could reasonably be expected to be funded from other sources 
• could reasonably be expected to be funded from members’ subscriptions 
• seek to promote or oppose a party-political viewpoint.

Applications can be made by filling in a Youth Grants form which can be found HERE.