A total of £19,753 has been awarded to community groups across Mendip in the last round of grant funding for this financial year from Flourish Homes’s Community Chest fund.
- Mendip Community Transport now has £1,200 for its dial-a-car scheme
- Foxview Group will use its £3,184 grant to fund weekly social drop-in sessions for older people with mental health issues
- The West Mendip Opportunity Group benefited from £5,000 to fund nursery sessions for children with learning and physical difficulties.
- Mean Feet Dance was granted £2,900 to put on a showcase dance event
- Young People Frome will put the £2,469 grant towards producing an information booklet to be given to Frome families
- Blue Wren got a total of £5,000 towards two programmes offering alternative therapies to older people and drug users to help improve general health
Social housing provider Flourish Homes has up to £50,000 for local groups to bid for every year and in the financial year 2006/2007 has funded 19 projects across Mendip. Over the year, six projects have been awarded the maximum grant of £5,000, which means £30,000 has been used to fund a young people’s café in Shepton Mallet, a befriending service for older people, tackling the isolation felt by women and children in rural areas, diversity events planned for Shepton Mallet, and the nursery sessions and providing alternative therapies mentioned above.
Flourish Homes has also awarded seven grants of £1,000 or less over the year to help a play scheme in Frome, the local Gingerbread group in Frome with its family support work, cookery classes for young people in Shepton Mallet, help for Glastonbury/Street’s St John’s Ambulance to buy a laptop and projector, help to transport young people from Shepton Mallet to a special premiere in Taunton for a film they made as part of the Take Art project, start-up costs for a Credit Union in Frome and help to fund a social club for people with mental illnesses in Wells.
The remaining grants (of between £1,000 to £4,000) have gone to six groups to fund family days and workshops in Frome, help to build a youth shelter at Wells’ The Blue School, and the four other projects mentioned above.
Flourish Homes’s Community Development Manager Beverley Breeds said: “Our community chest grants are available to local groups whose work helps to develop and support sustainable communities or helps to prevent social exclusion in the local area. We’re very proud to have funded such excellent work over the past year and look forward to seeing how we can help the wider communities where our homes can be found in the next financial year.”
Local groups interested to find out more about the funding can contact Flourish Homes’s Community and Resident Involvement team for a leaflet on 01749 334453 or email involvement@mendiphousing.co.uk
Funding is not restricted to projects that just benefit Flourish Homes residents and applications are welcome from groups within the Mendip area, including Wells, Glastonbury, Street, Shepton Mallet, Frome and the villages that surround these.
