Councillor Grant Scheme
Through the Empowering Healthy Communities Programme 30 Ward Councillors and 18 Parish Councils are set to receive a £1000 grant to provide additional support to their local area. The programme aims to support residents through and beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of Boston Borough Council’s trusted community leaders, the scheme will be helping to diversify, enhance and accelerate community engagement, with targeted communications focussing on building trust and confidence in public health information.
This initiative aims to help to revitalise communities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Examples of what the funding could be used for include, but are not limited to:
- Translation materials
- Covid-19 related projects (including funding for PPE supplies)
- Projects to inspire healthy lifestyles
- Digital tools (such as laptops and iPads for community groups)
Full guidance of the scheme, a map of wards councils and eligibility, please click on the links at the bottom of this page:
If you are interested in applying then please contact your Ward Councillor, Parish Council or Nichola Holderness, Empowering Healthy Communities Co-ordinator at nichola.holderness@boston.gov.uk
Related press releases:
5th July 2021 – Boston Borough Community groups invited to apply for funding from new Councillor Grant Scheme
Councillor Grants issued so far:
Councillor Deborah Evans has recently awarded Restore Church Boston with £1,000 of Councillor Grant Scheme funding.
The Restore Pantry located at the church provides affordable food through a low cost membership scheme to people in the Boston area. During the first year that it opened over 800 people benefited from this project. Restore Soup Van provides a hot meat 6 nights per week to homeless and vulnerable people in Boston. These projects are supported by a warehouse team who collect, and process food donations
The funding will go towards the development of a volunteer project which will allow the most vulnerable in our community to have a safe space to volunteer and develop new skills.
£1,000 Fosdyke Parish Council grant funding is awarded to Fosdyke Playing Field Social Club and will be put towards improvement to the toilets in the club including new handrails, alarm, sink and lighting. The village has an ageing population and these improvement will provide facilities to encourage those that are less able bodied and those who need help to use the toilet facilities.
£1,000 Frampton Parish Council Grant funding has been awarded to support financially the Frampton Community Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations event. Providing food, facilities, and transport throughout the day for those unable to make the journey to the beacon on foot, giving the parish an event to be proud of, and hopefully a legacy that will move community engagement forward.
The Jubilee Celebrations will bring the village together, over a topic that is very important to us all young and old alike. It is intended to make use of the 2nd June as celebration day having the focus of the event to be the lighting of our Millennium beacon, which sits on the Meridian Line by Frampton Marsh. With various events throughout the village hosted by various community groups during the day, then moving the focus to St Marys Parish Church where we will hold a service of celebration for the monarch followed by a procession on foot down to the beacon for lighting at 21:45.
This will make the event inclusive of everyone and be used to relaunch the Frampton Parish News.
£1,000 Parish Grant funding has been given to Wrangle Parish Council to purchase and install a Platinum Jubilee bench in the centre of the village next to the new village sign. This will provide an open meeting place for local residents to walk to, sit and have a chat, catch up. It will be outdoor and accessible to everyone of all abilities.
Councillor Tom Ashton has awarded Wrangle Parish Council £1,000 of his Councillor Grant Scheme funding towards their Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The funding will go towards the marquee hire and entertainment for all the families attending the celebrations at Wrangle Parish Hall. The local community will all be invited to attend the celebrations whilst meeting up with friends and family, making new friends and overall enjoying a free family event.
Councillor Michael Cooper has presented £1,000 to the RoadHog Youth Project from his Councillor Grant Scheme funding.
The funding will be used to purchase a computer for use on the RoadHog Bus and any accessories and safety features needed to accompany it. The RoadHog Bus has operated in Boston and surrounding villages for over 13 years. The upgrade of the current computer system with a more powerful unit will allow a greatly improved experience for their young guests.
Councillor Tom Ashton has awarded Wrangle Parish Council £1,000 of his Councillor Grant Scheme funding towards their Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The funding will go towards the marquee hire and entertainment for all the families attending the celebrations at Wrangle Parish Hall. The local community will all be invited to attend the celebrations whilst meeting up with friends and family, making new friends and overall enjoying a free family event.
A total of £1,335 Grant Scheme funding has been awarded to Kirton Parish Council towards Picnic in the Park for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Cllr Peter Watson awarded £335 from his Councillor Grant Scheme funds and £1000 was awarded by Kirton Parish Council’s Parish Council Fund.
This will be an outdoor family event organized by the Kirton Parish Council that will bring the community and families together with a celebration of the Queen’s 70th year on the throne. This celebration is going to be a once in a lifetime celebration that will allow people in the community to spend the afternoon and evening together to reflect on the Queen’s achievement.
The grant funding will go towards providing outdoor entertainment for children and families, hiring of an outdoor stage and lighting facility as well as hiring of entertainers to sing, perform and have an audience that will participate with the entertainment.
It will also be used to purchase a tree that will be planted to mark this special occasion, for the community to remember in years to come, it is hoped that the celebrations will create a special memory for all those who attend and partake in the event.
£665 Councillor Grant Scheme funding has been awarded by Cllr David Brown to Kirton Parish Council towards Jubilee Celebrations in Kirton.
Fishtoft Academy have recently been awarded £500 of Councillor Grant Scheme funding by Councillor Jonathan Noble.
This funding will be used to help the school launch a new programme called ‘Small School, Big Heart, and Healthier Start’. This programme will offer accessible physical activities (sporting sessions) to children whilst adults can partake in practical cooking sessions, focussing on nutritious cooking on a budget. These are being introduced to support not only physical but mental health of those involved by allowing adults and children to come together on a regular basis.
This programme will be open to all children and young people including their parents/guardians who live in or are educated within the Parish of Fishtoft.
The £500 funds will cover the costs of the cooking equipment and the ingredients for these cooking sessions which will take place for a period of 12 weeks.
EDAN Lincs, a domestic abuse charity offering emergency refuge accommodation and outreach advice and support to people experiencing and fleeing domestic abuse, have recently been awarded funding from the Councillor Grant Scheme. This is a joint funding project and a total of £3,250 has been awarded from Councillors Neill Hastie, Katie Chalmers, Jonathan Noble, Paul Skinner and Anton Dani.
The funding will enable the group to continue to provide support and advice to people in Lincolnshire whose first language is not English and who require an interpreter.
In their application they stated that: “To have additional funding would help us help victims that come to us with domestic abuse with translation services – to help communicate with them about their situation and what help might be available to them, as well as offer our S.A.F.E course, that helps victims regain their confidence, understand domestic abuse and signs for the future relationships to help them to re-enter community life again.”
Councillor Paul Goodale has recently awarded £500 of his Councillor Grant Scheme funding to the Samaritans of Boston.
The funding will go towards promotional material and advertising to raise awareness of the service within the community. Raising the awareness of the service given by the Samaritans is critical for those needing emotional support. Dispelling the myth that you have to be contemplating taking you own life to be able to talk to someone is vital so their focus is to support before things get too difficult to bear. As well as offering emotional support they are able to signpost to relevant organisations that can help with any difficulties being experienced.
The application stated that “Supporting the hard to reach communities using current promotional and advertising materials will give the reassurance that there is a lifeline for them to access before things get too difficult to cope with. A telephone call or email to Samaritans is free 24/7 so no one need feel alone or without support.”
Boston Lithuanian Community Group have recently been awarded £1,000 from Councillor Alison Austin from her Councillor Grant Scheme funding.
The funding will enable the group to continue with the 60hrs of free consultation and social club sessions they deliver twice per week including travelling expenses.
The project will help to:
- Assist the lonely and vulnerable and ensure they feel included
- Increase access to guidance and reaching local support services
- Improve overall well-being and inclusiveness of the community
- A Social programme to encourage all members to form new friendships
- Build stronger relationships and engagement within communities
- Make the community supported and inclusive
- Help people tackle isolation issues and make them more integrated.
- Encourage people to become happier, healthier and more integrated.
Chairperson of the group, Jurate Matulioniene said in her application: “The group fundraise from their events and charge some small fees for their clubs. However, we want to give opportunity for the vulnerable and the elderly and low income families who need our support to come to our hub for free. Therefore, funding support and resources are essential for our projects, rent, insurance, internet, printing, training of volunteers, sessional workers, coordination, travelling expenses, promotion, leaflets, etc. Also, we are looking for other streams of grants and support which will guarantee sustainability and continuity of supporting people of supporting people of our group and collaborating with other local groups in helping our local communities to be happier, healthier and more inclusive.”
The application stated that last year alone over 500 people contributed from this community group. Our volunteers organised a massive Kindness Campaign and Settlement Status campaign. With the help of previous funding we organised advice sessions, help with documents, Universal Credit, housing applications, phone calls, befriending calls, etc. And we would like to continue to support our groups most vulnerable and isolated and run our educational activities. Boston Lithuanian Community’s Hub has become an essential point of our group. It is an educational centre that runs children’s and adults clubs and support centre for the vulnerable, lonely, and isolated.
The Local Community Centre a registered charity has been successful in applying for a Councillor Community Grant from both Cllr Martin Griggs and Cllr Stephen Woodliffe.
The grant has been used to install a 50 litre mains cold feed water heater which provides hot water to the sink in the centres kitchen benefiting many groups using the facility. Now any groups that use the centres facilities to either wash up their pots and utensils after their sessions have hot water instead of having to boil a kettle for this, it is much more efficient and has removed any health and safety issues.
Cllr Bedford presents funds to the 10th Boston Scout Group Monday evening
Councillor Judith Welbourn has recently awarded Butterwick Baby and Toddler group with £250 of her Councillor Grant Scheme funds.
4th Boston (Kirton) Scout Group have recently been awarded funding from the Councillor Grant Scheme. This is a joint funding project and has been awarded from Councillors David Brown, Nigel Welton and Peter Watson.
Joint funding has been awarded to Swineshead Parish Council for a ‘Coney Hill Covid Reflection Garden’ to be created with funds from Councillor Grant Scheme from Councillor George Cornah, Councillor Chelcei Trafford and Swineshead Parish Council.
This will be used to regenerate a disused old layby in the village which attracts unsociable behaviour in the community. The area is overgrown and screened from the road by bushes and trees. The plans are to thin out the existing foliage, and implement a new planting scheme, including a grassed area with picnic benches and bike racks, etc. making it into a useable community space for everyone to enjoy.
£1,000 Freiston Parish Council grant funding has gone towards marking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by placing “gates2 at the side of all entry roads into the village. The gates will serve two purposes, whilst looking very attractive they will also be a warning to drivers that they are entering the village and to slow their speed down accordingly.
Councillor Anton Dani has used the remainder of his Councillor Grant Scheme funding £250 towards Boston Lithuanian Community’s renting costs.
The fund will help the group continue to meet their contractual obligations of the rent of their offices. The project is essential for the survival of our community group. They are unable to function without their offices. At the end of 2021 the group restarted some of their children’s clubs and also their language sessions and communication club for adults. They are also planning to organise educational activities to 100 students
Boston Lithuanian Community’s Hub has become an essential point of the group. It is an educational centre that runs children’s and adults clubs and support centre for the vulnerable, lonely, and isolated.
This gives the reserve the opportunity to let our communities feel welcome and included. It will also allow us to tell the story of the reserve and why it, and The Wash, are very special places for wildlife and we are lucky to have them on our door step.
A further £250 funding for Freiston Bowls Club via the Councillor Grant scheme has been supported by Cllr Peter Bedford.
Councillors Nigel Welton and Aaron Spencer have recently awarded £1,000 in total from their Councillor Grant Scheme funding to the Air Cadets 141 Boston Squadron.
The funding is to go towards updating their First Aid Training Resources to help improve the training they give to the cadets, this will allow them to have the items at squadron without having to borrow them from HQ Air Cadets.
The purchase will consist of a Laerdal Little Anne QCPR 4 Pack (Dark Skin) equipment package, two types of different AED Trainers, and the latest St John Ambulance First Aid Manual (the 11th Edition). These items will all support their learners providing the most up-to-date training equipment that will give the best full representational experience in training, including a manikin which has real-time CPR feedback allowing them to check how every learner is performing by having feedback on depth, release, rate and ventilations. It will also score the cadets on how well they are doing CPR and give them guidance on how to perform better and how to improve.
Singing for Fun, a singing group which has been running since 2015 with over 40+ members has recently been awarded funding from the Councillor Grant Scheme. This is a joint funding project and has been awarded from Councillors Aaron Spencer and Peter Watson.
The funding will help to pay for ongoing support of a tutor. They have found that having a professional singing teacher gives the group sessions a bit of structure enabling confidence, which also helps everyone with the warm up and breathing exercises that brings the health benefits to singing.
The application stated that: “The benefits to singing are enormous. Along with being fun and satisfying our aspiration to be the next Britain`s got Talent it really helps participants to relax enjoy themselves in a non- judgemental atmosphere.
“Being part of a social group brings opportunities to make new friends, remain socially connected and have a sense of belonging helping to prevent isolation. The Singing for Fun group are members of the community with no professional singing experience are very friendly, welcoming new members giving participants the opportunity to socialise make new friends.”
It will also be used to help to fund the venues. We know that it will be a while until we can return to ‘normal’ so to reach 40 + members/residents a week we will have to have more sessions with fewer participants.
Councillor Judith Skinner has recently awarded Toot Lane Allotments £1,000 from her Councillor Grant Scheme funding.
The funding will go towards a refurbished vandal proof container to house the association’s equipment. This will not only provide safety of this equipment but will also provide easy access for tenants to gain when visiting and working on their plots for years to come.
Amber Hill Parish Council have recently awarded their Parish Grant Scheme funding of £1,000 to Amber Hill Playing Field Committee for a project called Active Kids.
The funding will be used for updating the children’s play area with new toddler swing seats, reinforced backing boards on the netball/kickwall area and new goal nets.
The application stated that due to Covid the park didn’t get used much but in recent months they have seen an improved footfall and they want to encourage the community to use the various facilities. As Amber Hill is a very rural with no other community activities or amenity parishioners come from all over the parish and their neighbouring village Holland Fen to bring their little ones to play and mix with other children.
There are also a number of ladies that meet to play netball and keep fit.
The funding will allow for embroidered badges on all members t-shirts. It is hoped this funding will allow for the promotion of the bowling club, hopefully encouraging more members of the community to take up the sport and become more active, reducing isolation within the community.
The grant funding will be used to design and print walking maps for both Fenside Woods and Sir Joseph Banks Country Park. The maps will also include access information for all visitors, highlighting all-weather paths and accessible entry points, so the facilities can be enjoyed by all in all weather. The funding will also enable the production of welcome signs at the new Dion’s Wood Nature Reserve, including translation into a number of languages via a QR code.
Councillor Richard Austin has been able to support the Boston Woods Trust with his share of the Councillor Grant Scheme funding made available by the Empowering Healthy Communities programme. This funding of £1,000 will be used to produce, print and distribute materials to engage with diverse communities within Boston to encourage planting and volunteering within the Boston Woods Trust sites.
The trusts application stated: “Boston has a very diverse community with many of the inhabitants originating from areas of Eastern Europe, predominately Poland, Lithuanian, Latvia, Bulgarian and Romanian.
“There is little or no multilingual information available on the seven nature reserves, woodland and wildflower meadows that are available on the outskirts of Boston to provide volunteering opportunities, for enjoyment and enhanced wellbeing.
“The benefits of this project will allow for agreement within the wider community of a large project to plant 16,000 trees by volunteers on the outskirts of the town, engage with all communities on voluntary opportunities and give awareness in the wider community of all seven large amenity and wildlife areas that are on the outskirts of Boston that are available 24/7 to be used for health and wellbeing purposes.”
The money will also be used for translating social media messages in a number of languages, this will be supplemented by appropriate notices on site in different languages.
