An innovative project aimed at fixing up caravans to provide accommodation for homeless youth is among those to share in the latest round of Mount Alexander Shire Council community grants funding.
All up 15 successful applicants for funding under the second round of the council’s community grants program were confirmed at Tuesday’s evening council meeting and will now share in just under $50,000 to make their projects happen.
The innovative Caravan Fix Me Up project, overseen by Goldfields LLEN, clinched a $7909 partnership grant.
“This is a collaborative project between LLEN, the Castlemaine Secondary College and Dhelkaya Health, and is about fixing up two caravans to provide accommodation for homeless youth to use,” Cr Rosie Annear said.
Cr Annear also highlighted Dhelkaya Health’s TGD Binders Project which has secured $2800 in grant money – “to create a safe space for trans and gender diverse folks”.
“These are just a taste of the projects,” Cr Annear said.
Other groups to clinch a share of the grant dollars to help make their visions reality include the Mount Alexander Net Zero Working group which has secured a $3000 grant towards its The Big Switch project.
Other diverse successful applicants ranged from Castlemaine Events-Castlemaine Social Cinema which got $3000 to help deliver Guildford Social Cinema, to the North Castlemaine Cricket Club which got $3000 for a turf mower to maintain its reserve.
The latest round under the council’s community grants program received 22 applications requesting $76,149 from the community grants budget of $50,000.
“We receive a lot of these applications,” Cr Annear said.
“This is a really great program,”
This time round, of the 22 applications, 20 small grant applications and two partnership grant applications were received with all 22 applicants assessed as eligible.