27 JUNE 2018

Today Otago Regional Councillors adopted a re-vamped community grants program.

The fund, which will hold up to $250,000 per annum, aims to support work that protects and enhances Otago’s environment and enable community-driven environmental activities.

“All across the region, we are seeing considerable effort at the community level to tackle environmental issues in Otago from predator management through to work being done by catchment groups to improve water quality.”

“This fund aims to support this good work and empower communities and individuals to take action on the issues in their communities,” said Sian Sutton Director Stakeholder Engagement.

The new fund will be known as ECO Fund (Environment.Community.Otago) and will have three clear funding rounds, with the first funding round later this year. The ECO Fund also aims to support collaboration and partnerships across the region.

“After council deliberations, we decided that a key point of difference we would like to include in this fund is the ability to finance administrative support for projects,” said Cr Deaker, Chair of the Communication Committee.

“In talking to community groups, the feedback we got consistently was that several funds were available to fund capital expenditure but very few were in existence to fund positions or pieces of work such as strategies or catchment plans. We are certainly very excited to offer this point of difference,” he said.

Cr Scott said, “This fund has really evolved and with Councillors rotating on the selection panel, it will give us all an opportunity to be a part of the decision-making process, which is key”.

Cr Ella Lawton said, “This is an exciting way in which we can directly help our communities. So, thank you for the work gone into the evolution of this fund. I look forward to ORC’s “best kept secret” no longer being a secret and to reviewing the applications”.

The fund will officially launch on July 31st, 2018.

Some of the previous projects funded by the ORC include the following:

ENDS