Community supported by £17,500 Innovation Grants

Nearly £17,500 has been awarded in Innovation Grants to charities and community groups to help get their innovative ideas off the ground.

Canterbury City Council’s Innovation Grants scheme is designed to help the voluntary sector experiment with original, untested and new ways of responding to the needs of the community.

Chairman of the council’s Community Committee, Cllr Neil Baker, said: “This scheme helps charities and community groups to get new projects out of the starting blocks and a step closer to reality.

“Those projects can be intended to help a set of people who have not been helped before or find better ways of helping existing clients or users.”

The maximum award is £3,000 and those applying must show how they will measure the social and economic impact of their idea. They must also demonstrate how they will help the council achieve its corporate priorities.

This time around, the following groups were successful:

• Blean Parish Council was awarded £2,000 to set up a youth council
• Canterbury Festival was awarded £3,000 to train artists in how to run workshop sessions more effectively
• Relate East Kent was awarded £2,670 to train counsellors in the issues faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer or questioning and asexual or allied people
• Threads was awarded £2,994 for a four-day development programme for emerging local artists
• Kentish Stour Countryside Project and Take Off were awarded £3,000 to run practical conservation sessions in rural Canterbury for people suffering with emotional or mental health issues
• White Slate Theatre was awarded £2,000 for its project to encourage new parents to create art around their experiences
• Whitstable Umbrella was awarded £1,825 to create a casserole club which encourages the neighbours of isolated and vulnerable people to pop round with a wholesome meal and have a chat

The next round of Innovation Grants will open on 25 June and will close on 24 August.

More details and an application form.

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