After considering the Community Funding Review last month, the Council confirmed its commitment to providing a wide range of community support in the future (including annual contributions to organisations, long-term agreements, short-term project assistance, emergency cash-flow support, quick responses to new initiatives and large and small grants).

However, the Council wants to make sure its support is effective, even-handed, well-understood in the community and that it works in with and complements the community support being offered by other organisations and agencies, including those from central government.

The review clearly shows that community organisations, through their support and social services, create a wide range of opportunities for people to engage in local community affairs and that results in improved social cohesion, broad changes participation and the recognition of local wisdom and solutions.

In response to the review findings the Council intends to set a minimum annual level of grants and develop a formula for the annual increase of that minimum level.

Councillor Graham Condon, chairman of the Community and Leisure Committee, says the Council’s decision to go ahead with recommendations put up by the Community Funding Review will mean, “a significant revision of the way in which the Council delivers its funding. The community sector’s been asking for clearer processes and that’s what we’re planning to deliver.

“This will be done alongside the community-wide Healthy Christchurch initiative and the Council’s Community Mapping project. The over-all aim is to identify the issues, see what’s working well and where the gaps are and make sure that as a community we’re heading in the direction of what’s really needed.”

It will be important to make sure community and voluntary groups understand what is to be done and that any changes are introduced gradually, he says.

The Council will do more to make sure information about its various funding streams are known and accessible and will work to simplify its systems. The goal is to avoid any confusion among the public about the Council’s application, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation processes. It aims to make sure people can easily identify the fund they should apply to and reduce compliance costs on both community group and the Council.

More cooperation and information-sharing amongst the Council’s business units, Standing Committees and Community Boards is called for and Councillors on the Community and Leisure Committee also will meet other community funding bodies to talk about how they and the Council can improve how they work together.

It is proposed that the Council’s role in community funding will keep evolving and that this area will be looked as part of its work with the community to develop its longer-term community planning.

Reasons for review

The Community Funding Review came from a Council debate last year.

At present the Council distributes about $7 million in grants.

Each year, it is getting more requests for financial help and in many cases the amounts being asked for are also rising.

Councillors suggested a review could help set priorities and help to gauge the effect funding is having in the community.

“Many (councillors) believed that the lack of funding priorities has contributed to a haphazard and ad hoc approach,” Cr Condon says.

“The need for this review was reinforced by some community and voluntary groups which had identified a need to simplify the Council’s community funding process.”

It was decided that the review should aim to recommend an over-all approach for distributing community funding and set priorities and systems which fit with the Council’s policies and goals.

The review considered money which goes out through the Community Organisation Loan Scheme, Major Grants made through the Council’s Annual Plan, the Metropolitan Community Discretionary Funds, the Strengthening Communities Action Plans, the Social Initiatives Fund, the Community Boards’ Community Workers funding and the Community Development Scheme.