Help has gone to great projects

Projects that help the elderly spot scams, give youth a safe gathering place while they learn hip hop, and build a walking trail around one of our beautiful areas are amongst those to receive a grant from Hastings District Council.

Each year Council allocates cash to charitable causes that provide services to people in our district. The criteria are designed to ensure the projects assist with Council’s aims, set out in its Long Term Plan.

This year the budget was $278,065 and last week the Council committee in charge of approving the grants committed just over $250,000 to 22 groups. The successful projects covered a vast range of age groups and interests, from sport, heritage and education to church groups, rescue services and elderly help organisations.

Age Concern groups in Flaxmere and Havelock North were both successful in having their projects accepted for funding. Flaxmere’s Age Concern’s programme is designed to help elderly keep themselves safe from fraud, including by mail, email, phone, on the doorstep and at ATM machines. The programme, focusing on teaching people how to spot the risks and how to respond to them, would be rolled out across other Age Concern groups once it had been tried and tested in Flaxmere, the application said. It received almost $6000 towards the implementation.

Age Concern Havelock North received almost $13,000 to help fund two projects. One is its Next Steps Lifestyle Expo. The success of the first expo, which pulls together exhibitors with products, services and seminars of particular interest to the elderly, had prompted the organisation to re-run the event. Its second event is its Community Christmas Day Luncheon for people needing company and a festive meal at Christmas time. The application said the event provided “a wonderful meal and companionship to those who could benefit from a little assistance at this special time of year”.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Zeal Education Trust received $15,000 for its Rezpect Dance Academy. The hip-hop dance-based programme, set up seven years ago, was formed to provide young people with a safe, alcohol-, and drug-free setting to gather and feel connected. The application said between 250 and 400 young people, aged from 5 to 25, attend classes over an average year. “Major transformations are frequently witnessed, with Rezpect students learning humility, selflessness, discipline, respect for others, honesty, forgiveness and how to handle conflict.”

The Cape Coast and Heritage Trust was granted $20,000 to help build an Arts and Heritage Trail. It will run from Black Bridge to Clifton, with information signs highlighting key characters and events that have helped “shape the area from swamp to farmland, the evolution from isolation to beach resorts and holiday homes, share the histories of tangata whenua, and note events”. It is expected that the trail will be a path well-used by locals and attract visitors.

The full list of recipients and funds received is:

People’s Advocacy Society $2000

Kidz need Dadz $3700

Victim Support $4000

Radio Kidnappers $4480

Allegiance Brazilion Jiu Jitsu Academy $5000

Hawke’s Bay Rescue Helicopter Trust $5506

Age Concern Flaxmere $5788

Enliven Day Programme $6000

Waimarama Surf Life Saving Club $7000

Flaxmere Baptist Church $9000

Hawke’s Bay Digital Archives Trust $9575

Riverslea School Supporting Families $10,000

YMCA Hawke’s Bay $10,000

Age Concern Havelock North $12,986

Anglican Care Waipu $15,000

Zeal Education Trust $15,000

Heretaunga Women’s Centre $19,000

Cape Coast Arts and Heritage Trust $20,000

2017 Royal A&P Show $22,000

Hastings Women’s Refuge $25,000

SPCA $30,000

The next annual funding round opens on February 1, 2018.

ENDS

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