10 Local Organizations Receive Grants From City Of Woodstock

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Saturday, 5 October 2019 07:18

The Community Grants Advisory Committee granted ten organizations over $40,000 in funding, which was approved at Thursday's council meeting. The Canadian Cancer Society's Wheels of Hope and Woodstock Minor Baseball were among the organizations.

WOODSTOCK - Ten organizations received $41,245 in grants through Woodstock City council's Community Grants Advisory Committee.

It is the second time this year the Committee have given money from their Community Grants Program.

Mayor Trevor Birtch says they help support different non profit and charity organizations through two grant intake programs each year.

"We had quite a few applications come in and some of the successful of note were the Wheels of Hope for the Canadian Cancer Society, they'll be receiving $5,000. This is used to help provide transportation to those that are undergoing treatment. A lot of the people in the Friendly City, their treatments are fortunate to be here at the Woodstock General Hospital but for others it could be another facility such as London or Kitchener, and this will help support them."

The grants were approved by city council during their meeting on Thursday.

The Committee received 11 eligible applications requesting a total of $90,705.00 in grants and they recommended funding to ten organizations.

Mayor Birtch says there are a variety of programs a part of the second intake.

"We have others on the list from Woodstock Minor Baseball to the Woodstock Legion Athletic
Club and the Dragon Boat Club, so all in all it's one of the great jobs of council to help improve the quality of life for individuals here in the community through this Community Grants Program."

Staff's report says the committee met last month to review the applications and a total of $56,000 was left over from the spring intake, which was available to distribute.

He says the committee looks over the applications and sees at what types of requests there are, along with reviewing each organization's ability and decide on how much money they can give.

"Many of them when they put their request in, it could be for a much larger amount than what the actual money is that's available through the committee, so quite often the amount that they receive it's not going to provide all of the financing for their program. They're still going to need to go out there and hit the pavement and rely on other members of the community to be generous."

The full list of applicants can be found here.

Following council's approval, $14,755 remains available for future disbursements in 2019.

Council's report also says that further information has been requested by one of the applicants before making a decision on their grant application. Under the Community Grants Policy, the committee is also allowed to meet to consider emergency applications that were not submitted by the deadline.

Mayor Birtch adds if organizations want to apply for future grants, the spring intake will be in February of next year.

"The applications are received here at City Hall through the clerk's department and they go to the committee. And those applications, we have a spring intake and a fall intake and the City will communicate the deadlines in the future for those intakes. So the first one should be in February of 2020 again with decisions coming in the next few months from then."