Cash For Crieff – 2018-2020
In 2018 Crieff Community Trust was chosen to administer £40,000 from the Scottish Government’s Community Choices Fund, which aimed to support community empowerment and build on participatory democracy.
The money was to be distributed to groups operating for the benefit of the Crieff area. The fund was given out using participatory budgeting – this is when the community decides on where the funding will go through a community vote. For further details on participatory budgeting see www.pbscotland.scot .
The fund was named locally as ‘Cash for Crieff’ and its implementation was delivered by a CCT Project Development Officer. To begin the project a focus group was held in the Crieff Pavilion Cafe to decide on the key criteria for the fund. To support the local community to submit bids, in early January 2019 CCT ran a Cash for Crieff networking event and a fund writing drop in session for people who needed assistance in writing funding applications.
In total 20 project proposals were submitted and put to the public vote. Voters had to be a Crieff resident, aged 9 and over, and give their name, date of birth and postcode. Voting took place online, as well as at various polling stations (Can Do Crieff, the Town Hall, the library and local schools and residential homes.) Each voter needed to read all 20 projects and then choose the 5 which they wanted to see funded. If a voter did not choose 5, none of their choices were counted and their vote was deemed invalid. 991 eligible votes were cast by Crieff residents including many school children.
A community awards ceremony and celebration was held in mid-March 2019, at which grants of differing sizes were awarded from the Crieff Community Choices Fund of £40,000 to all 20 groups who had submitted a proposal. The grants were given to a diverse range of community groups and causes.
Following the awards, analysis was conducted to review the process and record learnings for any future PB process. One of the many positive outcomes of Cash for Crieff was that local community groups met up with each other, something they rarely had the opportunity to do. They were able to discuss their different projects and ambitions. A strong desire was expressed by all the local groups to be able to collaborate more and to be better informed on what other groups in Crieff were doing and which funds they were applying for. This is being carried forward as an issue to address in the next Community Action Plan.
The following groups were awarded grants from the Cash for Crieff 2019 PB:
Active Schools – Crieff school’s extra curricular club volunteer training in climbing and mountain biking qualifications
Brass Central Strathearn development band
Cafe Connexions
Crieff Junior Soccer School for all
Crieff Museum Group
Crieff’s Christmas Lights – Switch On event
Crieff Stroke Support Group – Table Games project
MacRosty Park – Fun for All
Strathearn Arts for Experience – (SAFE)
Unity Dance Collective
Vale Of Earn Football Club
Young Adult Partnership Pilot Project
Halloween and Hogmanay Events
Old St Michaels -Havers and History
Kids Week in Crieff
Make history in Crieff – the Campus Archaeology Trail
Girlguiding Crieff – Outdoor adventures
RDA – Rideaway Celebrates 50 years of RDA
Spoken local news for the partially sighted
St Dominic’s Primary School and Wraparound Care – Outdoor Classroom