Otago Community Trust have funded over $760,000 in support of a wide range of community projects in their July funding round. Initiatives supporting vulnerable communities were a driver in several of the applications for funding.

Whāngaia NgāPā Harakeke Ōtepoti received a $70,000 grant which will assist in establishing a community facility where police and local iwi, alongside social agencies work in partnership to reduce family harm.

Whāngaia NgāPā Harakeke is a place-based approach which builds on the work social agencies and communities are doing to improve outcomes for vulnerable New Zealanders.

Trust chief executive, Barbara Bridger explains that the Whāngaia programme aims to reduce family harm, particularly amongst groups over-represented in family harm statistics.

“We are very pleased to be offering funding support to assist the introduction of the Whāngaia model to our region” said Bridger.

A $25,000 grant was also awarded to Eduk8 Charitable Trust supporting their Te Ara Tutuki Pai The Right Track programme.

The Right Track programme is positioned towards young people, adults and recidivist offenders from all walks of life who have been charged with or are at risk of being charged with drink driving, dangerous driving behaviours and similar aberrant driver behaviour, said Otago Community Trust chair Ross McRobie.

“Trustees were impressed with the strong youth focus of the Right Track programme, which aligns closely with the Trust’s strategic priority area of Youth, Health, Wellbeing and Employment”.

“This programme aims to educate, motivate, challenge and inform participants through a range of experiences that will impact upon them, their families and communities in order to help them make better decisions and choices in the future” said McRobie.

The Trust was also pleased to award Otago Hockey Assn (1990) Inc a $390,000 capital project grant to support their artificial turf development at King’s High School.

Otago Hockey propose to build a third turf at King’s High School which will alleviate oversubscribed fields and reduce the need to have secondary school games finishing very late into the evening. The completed facility would be part of a sporting hub at King’s High School and would be available for use by other codes, including futsal, football, and the wider community.

Green Island Rugby Football Club Incorporated received a $23,500 grant to assist with the cost of repair upgrading their clubroom facilities. Rosebank Primary School received a $16,880 grant which will contribute to the development of a new fitness track for the South Otago school and a $9,500 grant will support the New Zealand Choral Federation Inc with delivering the Big Sing National Finale in the Dunedin Town Hall, 29-31 August 2019.

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