Have Your Say gains momentum

Friday, 28 September Sep 2012

Hampshire County Council's new scheme to involve local people in community decisions is gaining momentum, with four new grants approved for Basingstoke, Hart, Havant and Rushmoor.

'Have Your Say' provides funding for local projects which have been chosen and then voted for by local people and will run until 31 March 2013, or until all the £200,000 grant has been used.

First grants out to the vote

The first Have Your Say grant of £12,000 has already been awarded to The Community Safety Partnership to distribute to local Gosport projects through their YOUdecide programme. Local Gosport community groups get the chance to compete for funding by pitching for votes from local residents at Thorngate Halls, 12.45pm on Saturday 17 November 2012. Applications are already open and the deadline for completed forms is Friday 19 October 2012. Further information and applications forms are available from the Gosport Community Safety Partnership website safergosport.co.uk.

Involving local people in decisions

Now projects in Basingstoke and Deane, Hart, Havant, and Rushmoor will have the opportunity to apply for a share of £67,500.

Councillor Keith Mans, Executive Member for Communities and International Relations, approved applications from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Hart Voluntary Action, HCCS (Havant Council of Community Service) Community Action and Rushmoor Borough Council at his Decision Day on 24 September. These organisations will now invite applications for community projects and those that meet the criteria will then be put to a public vote at an open community event.

More applications welcomed

Applications to organise and run small scale community participatory budget events are welcomed from local organisations including district/borough councils, town or parish councils, council for voluntary service, community groups, community safety or other relevant partnerships. These organisations must have the ability to operate the scheme locally, and potentially link this with other resources for the community to make decisions about the funding of local projects.

'Have Your Say' website

Application details for Gosport community groups: Sam Mitchell on 023 9254 5232 or e-mail: sam.mitchell@gosport.gov.uk, or visit the Gosport community website.

Local 'Have Your Say' delivery partners who have recently applied for Have Your Say funds

Basingstoke and Deane: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Basingstoke Voluntary Services

Hart: Hart Voluntary Action

Havant: Havant Borough Council, HCCS Community Action

Rushmoor: Rushmoor Borough Council, Rushmoor Voluntary Services, Rushmoor Citizens Panel, Rushmoor Youth Council, the Gaming Zone

A pilot project for Have Your Say was held in May 2012 when local people in Gosport voted at a YOUdecide Decision Day for which of their favourite community projects should benefit from a share of the total grant of £12,500. The successful projects were

• Forton Footy Project: improves employment prospects for young people with sports-related coaching courses
• Young, Homeless and Hungry: provides hot food vouchers & travel subsidy to homeless young people & those at risk of being homeless
• Gosport & Lee-on-the-Solent Litteraction: wants to buy additional litter pickers to encourage more litteraction groups to be set up across the borough
• Gosport Street Pastors: provides a voluntary presence every Saturday night & one Friday night per month to support vulnerable people
• Dance Motiv8ationMotiv8: will identify 12 young people aged 13-19 who are involved in ASB to take part in a 12 week dance programme that will result in a qualification, whilst also learning about ASB & the impact on their community
• Rowner Music Night, Music Fusion: will provide a free, open access music project for 13-19 year olds at Rowner Youthy where they will learn to perform, record & broadcast their own music
• Transformer Drug and Alcohol Support Service: offers weekly support for people with issues of misuse of drugs or alcohol and signpost people to recovery programmes where possible
• Power to Change Programme, Fareham & Gosport Family Aid: runs a programme that aims to break cycles of Domestic Abuse & learnt behaviour, enabling people to implement safety measures to protect themselves & their family

• Have Your Say

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