28 Aug 2013
Twenty-five initiatives are to benefit from an £80,000 grants scheme launched by Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Christopher Salmon.
They range from a Powys youth club which receives £200 to acquire equipment to a Carmarthenshire food-and-fun project for children which receives £5,000.
Others include a Pembrokeshire project aimed at preventing young people from committing crime which receives £1,890 and a Ceredigion programme of activities for young people at risk of offending which receives £4,000.
Lots of photos on Facebook.
The first round of assistance from the Commissioner’s Fund offered grants of up to £5,000 for charities, voluntary organisations and community groups to develop ideas that have a positive impact on the area they serve.
Mr Salmon hopes the scheme will help improve the lives of the people across the region. The projects reflect - in some way - Mr Salmon’s 2013-18 Police and Crime Plan for Dyfed-Powys.
The Commissioner, elected last year to keep communities safe from crime, said: “I thank all those who worked so hard on their submissions to the first round of Commissioner’s Fund grants. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to offer grants totalling almost £85,000.
“I congratulate those connected with the successful submissions as the number and quality of applications was phenomenal; this round attracted bids totalling more than £575,000! I do hope that those who missed out on this occasion understand that we had finite funds and that the assesment of applications was carried out in a transparent manner. I’m thrilled that thousands of pounds will be shared out across the region to help improve the lives of the people in our communities.”
Mr Salmon believes that everybody has a part to play in making neighbourhoods safer; hundreds of individuals and organisations already volunteer energetically or work hard to help in this process.
The Commissioner’s Fund provides further assistance. It is funded by the proceeds of crime awarded to the police and from the sale of unclaimed found property.
Community projects were not nominated by the public or organisations but by frontline police officers and Dyfed-Powys Police staff, and approved by senior officers who assessed applications against criteria such as the need for the project and the numbers to benefit.
Mr Salmon said: “The Commissioner’s Fund aims to reduce demand for policing services by making excellent use of money and by helping to cut crime. Police officers and staff around the region nominated suitable projects.
A second round of Commissioner’s Fund applications is expected to open towards the end of this year.
CASE STUDIES: SUCCESSFUL BIDS
Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Powys
Victim Support £3,000
The application is to fund the specialist training for volunteers to support victims of anti- social behaviour in the Dyfed-Powys Police area. At this time there is no specialist support for victims of this type of offence and it is proposed to train 10 volunteers to cover this need.
Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire
Seren Counselling Service £3,870
The project will provide specialised counselling for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Small teams of qualified counsellors will deliver counselling to clients who self refer or are referred from a variety of agencies. Clients are offered an assessment followed by up to twelve fortnightly one to one sessions. The project is currently based in Carmarthen, Aberystwyth, Cardigan and Haverfordwest.
Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion
Age Cymru Sir Gâr £4,500
The funding will assist Age Cymru Sir Gâr to run awareness raising events over the Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire area, and assist with the prevention of rural scams and oil thefts from older people in rural communities. The events will be multi agency and will bring partners together to highlight the issues surrounding rural crime and assist older more vulnerable people in the prevention of crime.
Carmarthenshire
Ammanford Community First Responders £500
This application is in support of the Ammanford First Responder Group who work closely with the Welsh Ambulance Service in the delivery of advanced first aid and lifesaving treatment to the public. They are a voluntary group and wish to expand and improve their service to the community. The group currently consists of eight members and has responded to over 90 calls since March 2013. The group has also received two letters of commendation for their service to the community. Due to the lack of Ambulances the First Responders are usually first at scene and help police to treat the casualty.
Breaking Cycles £5,000
There is a big gap for supporting fathers whilst in prison and on release. This project, from Carmarthenshire Youth and Children’s Association, will provide parenting support as well as mentoring the children as they are also at high risk of offending. There is no statutory body with the responsibility of supporting a prisoner’s children. This project will offer a training programme to fathers whilst in prison; it will be delivered by a qualified therapist. A qualified mentor will also work with the child addressing any issues that may be highlighted. This will then develop the strength of the family and reduce the risk of re-offending.
Carmarthenshire Domestic Abuse Forum £4,987
Carmarthenshire Domestic Abuse Forum supports victim of domestic abuse. The forum supports a number of services in Carmarthenshire by ensuring organisations have the relevant equipment, training and needs to support victims. Between 2011 to 2012, the forum supported 1,800 victims; 800 of these incidents were reported to the police, leaving 1,000 victims not reporting such incidents. The forum attempts to raise awareness to victims in order to give them the confidence in reporting such incidents to the police. The fund will be used to purchase personal safety alarms to support victims and for victims to attend personal safety courses.
Gay Ammanford £946.60
Gay Ammanford offers a range of support services including LGBT, domestic violence, hate crime and sexual health. The group is in the process of expanding to cover all of Carmarthenshire and eventually the whole of Dyfed-Powys. To do this, the funding will assist the group with a rebranding process and the professionalising of their services so they can be reached by a wider audience. The aim of the project is to raise awareness of the services that are available to the community and protect vulnerable people.
Lifeshare Lunch Club £5,000
As an extension of the Lifeshare food/clothes/furniture bank the project will contribute towards the support of children who would qualify for school meals during the school holidays by providing opportunities to play in Crazy Maisie’s Bouncy Castle Fun station and have a hot meal. We would also feed the parents who often go without to feed their children. The project will run 35 two- hour sessions (40 children a session) and in the long term enable the parents to run the club. This would provide an opportunity for PCSO’s etc to connect with vulnerable children and families in the area.
Bwlch Motocross Project £3,180
Based in Llanelli, this is an exciting and innovative project from the Morfa Youth Forum offering alternative education, training and youth work for young people in Carmarthenshire. It was set up four years ago with support from the Prince’s Trust and Communities First to try to tackle the youth nuisance of illegal riding in Llanelli. The project uses motocross as a tool to engage young people and develop their skills across the board as well as building upon their self-esteem, confidence and behaviour. Equipment is now in need of replacement.
New Pathways £4,964
Each year New Pathways receives more than 300 referrals from people living in the Dyfed-Powys area. Unfortunately, they have a long waiting list of people with historic abuse issues who desperately need their support. The fund will enable New Pathways to employ a dedicated counsellor to work one day a week at the Carmarthen SARC. This will make a significant difference to their service by providing approximately 230 counselling sessions during the year for local victims of rape and sexual abuse.
Ramp Skate Park £5,000
The identification of need for this Llanelli project was through the incident numbers recorded of antisocial behaviour in the current location, of the ill equipped outdoor facility, vandalism of new regeneration infrastructure as well as vulnerable adults’ calls from the shopping precinct. A steering group working with key partners such as Carmarthenshire County Council, youth forums, the Safer Communities Action Group and Coleg Sir Gar developed the Ramps Skate Park project and the funding contributed towards the purchasing of essential skating health and safety equipment.
Scarlets Development Group £5,000
The grant will help facilitate and bring the Llanelli Street Rugby Project to the most socially deprived areas of the town. This project will be an excellent vehicle for the young people in the communities to see the WRU and police in a positive light because they will see both organisations supplying fun, exciting and challenging activities which will help engage them and make a positive impact on the communities in which they live.
WISPA £4,900
Llanelli Women’s Aid has a new initiative called WISPA; it is a programme supporting male perpetrators of domestic violence. The programme is 36 weeks in length with groups of up to eight members meeting weekly for two hours. The groups are run on a rolling basis; that is, when a group member finishes the programme or drops out, a new member can join the group. The project funding will allow staff to undertake the training to deliver the programme and for a delivery of the project for one 38 week programme in Carmarthenshire.
Ceredigion
Llangybi Youth Club £1,000
The project will look at a partner-delivered approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and at guiding young people at risk of offending by funding five sessions with The Academy of Creative Arts to positively engage children and young people in alternative options for diversionary activities.
Penparcau Community Forum £4,000
Penparcau Community Forum and the Youth Justice Service along with the police will develop a programme of activities for the autumn for young people who are at risk of offending. The project will allow the young people to engage in activities that they would not normally have easy access to such as surfing, coasteering, etc. The programme aims to build self esteem and confidence in young people through enjoying the outdoors and exploring their own potential.
West Wales Women’s Aid Children & Families Project £4,970
The funding will assist WWWA to deliver a project which will help children and young people who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse. The project will allow small groups and families to engage in a range of activities and short breaks where they could start to rebuild mother/child relationships and engage with positive male role models. This will provide new and positive experiences in a safe and structured environment.
Pembrokeshire
Hafan Cymru £5,000
The funding will contribute towards the Freedom programme for two 12-week courses in Pembrokeshire, one to statrt in September 2013, the second in January 2014. The aim is to provide vulnerable female victims of domestic abuse an opportunity to explore in a group setting the experience they have had, the effects domestic abuse has on their children and knowledge and information to assist them to recognise abusive relationships. The objective of the programme is that they can learn to recognise abusive behaviour in future and prevent them from entering future abusive relationships so the cycle of violence can be broken.
Haverfordwest Street Pastors £2,030.28
The funding will contribute towards the Haverfordwest Street Pastors who will engage with people on the streets to care, listen and communicate safety messages to them. The Street Pastors are volunteers who are trained mainly to provide care and assistance to all, especially young people, and those who are under the influence of alcohol/drugs, usually on the weekends and those out late at night. The scheme has proved invaluable in helping to reduce the harm associated with crime and disorder in the night time economy, in particular alcohol related incidents.
Milford Youth Matters £5,000
A targeted youth provision for young people aged 14 to 25 from Milford Haven. The work intended to be delivered will cover four key topics that have been identified specifically relating to this community including community safety, the perception of crime, anti-social behaviour and vulnerable people. Multi agency-approach workshops and projects will be held at the school, youth centre and in the community as educational diversionary activities. The young people attending can be referred by partner agencies or they can attend on voluntary basis.
Pembrokeshire Adventure Centre £1,890
Funding is provided to contribute towards the running of the Wild Camp in Pembrokeshire. This is a multi-agency diversionary project aimed at preventing young people from committing crime and antisocial behaviour. It is aimed at young people at risk of offending or those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Pembrokeshire Adventure Centre will be providing a day of coasteering/kayaking and an evening session of abseiling.
SUDDS £4,995.96
The funding will extend the reach of drug and alcohol education, information and awareness raising to the people of Dyfed-Powys, assisting to help deliver this service via SUDDS. The funding will help the organisation raise awareness of substance misuse-related harm caused to communities and to run a prevention and education activity with young people by developing interactive techniques to engage and interest the young people of the community.
Powys
Brecon Boxing Club £2,865
The funding application is to provide support for the running costs of Brecon Boxing Club which provides diversionary activities for the youth of Brecon. The funding will also purchase new equipment so that the group can increase its attendance.
Gwernyfed RFC £800
The equipment purchased by the grant will help to expand the accessibility of the club. The section is open to boys and girls aged seven to 18 and is thought to be the only club to offer rugby to girls in the whole of Powys. This equipment will help improve the opportunities for children of both sexes aged seven to 18 to participate in sport in the Talgarth area.
Machynlleth Youth Group £200
To provide new and replace old equipment for the youth club, thereby providing for those who already attend and further encourage other children from Machynlleth and surrounding villages to attend and make new friends and learn new skills. Currently 20-45 children benefit from the scheme and the club are hoping to encourage more local youths to attend.
Presteigne Youth Project £1,000
The funding is to contribute towards the running of PYP, which was instigated in 2009 in response to rising levels of youth vandalism in Presteigne, and following the closure of the old youth centre. The need to do something about anti-social behaviour would be addressed by providing a suitable facility in the town that would act as a focus group for young people in the community. It would give them not only somewhere to go two evenings a week, but also develop a support network of young acquaintances, alongside adult guidance.
Total Funds Allocated £84,598.84
