A hive of activity to help 102 community groups on the Sunshine Coast will soon be underway after council endorsed recipients of its latest Major Grants program at today's (15 October) Ordinary Meeting.
A wide range of organisations will share in $823,200 including the Coolum Cricket Club, Buderim Craft Cottage Association Inc and Conondale Public Hall Committee Inc.
Sunshine Coast Council Community Portfolio Councillor David Law said the latest Major Grants round had a strong focus on Community Facilities (infrastructure) projects due to the temporary suspension of usual co-funding requirements.
"This round has supported 35 infrastructure projects which are shovel-ready right now," Cr Law said.
"That's excellent news for both the community groups who help make our region thrive and also the local businesses they will utilise to deliver their projects.
"Demand for grant funding is increasing and in light of the disruptions COVID-19 has caused our community, council will continue to offer grants as a strategic investment tool, which is responsive to the community's changing needs."
Coolum Cricket Club president Martin Bristow said the 257-member club was thrilled to receive a $30,000 grant to go towards irrigation works at the Ron Cargill Oval – facilities it shares with the Coolum Colts Rugby League Club.
"This is huge for our club as the oval surface has really needed some TLC for quite a few years and it just hasn't been up to scratch for our junior or senior teams," Mr Bristow said.
"We're a very proud club and it currently doesn't portray what we want to portray.
"This grant now means we can kick-off stage one of the irrigation works and allows us to utilise even more of the ground."
Buderim Craft Cottage Association Inc president Kay Weber said their $30,000 Major Grant would greatly contribute to expanding their building to provide office space and storage.
"We're so happy – this is wonderful news. We now have 350 members so the entire space we currently use is at capacity," Ms Weber said.
"We've outgrown many temporary office spaces over the years. Being a craft club we have a great deal of items we also need to store securely.
"We can now store more tables and chairs as well. That will come in handy for some of our major events we collaborate with our community groups on, such as the Buderim Christmas Fair."
Conondale Public Hall Committee Inc treasurer Lois White said their $9374 Major Grant would help restump the hall and restore its windows.
"The hall is nearly 90 years old. It doesn't take much to run it but we'd love to get it back into full use where it's the heart of the community," Ms White said.
"This will hopefully help breathe some life back into it, make it safe and compliant and be available to many community groups and wedding bookings each year."
Council's Major Community Grants support eligible local community groups with funding up to $15,000 for projects (and up to $30,000 for infrastructure projects only) in one of seven categories:
Community Development,
Community Events,
Community Facilities,
Cultural Development,
Cultural Heritage,
Economic Development, and
Sports, Recreation and Healthy Living.
The Community Grants Program provides support to not-for-profit community groups for one-off projects, events and activities that benefit the Sunshine Coast community.
The focus of the 2020/21 Community Grants Program remains on supporting projects which:
respond to community need and deliver on council's priorities
activate the community in a resilient and vibrant way
inject money into the local economy
are ready to get started and be successfully completed
deliver maximum community benefit.
