There is just over one week left to participate in an online Community Voting Survey which will determine which of a range of community proposals in the Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Northern Corridor area receive public funding.
Local citizens have been responding in their droves in recent weeks, with more than 1,000 people casting votes so far to help decide which of 37 community and voluntary sector organisations operating in Greater Cumbernauld receive between £500 and £1,000 to deliver specified community projects to benefit the area.
The Survey, which can be accessed by clicking here, closes on Friday 18 March 2022 at 12.00noon, and your contribution could make all the difference as the voting is currently very close between several of the proposals as the race enters its final lap. Indeed, your vote could be the key factor on whether a proposal ultimately receives funding or whether one misses out.
Those living in Greater Cumbernauld and others with an interest in the wider Cumbernauld community are asked to participate in the online Survey, which will take no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete. Respondents are invited to select the three proposals they believe to be most worthy of being funded.
The organisations which have submitted proposals for voting are (in alphabetical order) 2nd Clyde Moodiesburn Scout Group, 3rd Cumbernauld (223rd Glasgow) Scout Group, AD Framing, Addictions Support and Counselling (ASC), Auchinloch Community Council, Balloch Eastfield Football Club, Bethlehem House of Bread, Blue Sky Autism Project, Carbrain Boys Club 2009s, Cardowan Community Meadow, Chryston Community Council, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship, Croy Community Hub, Cumbernauld Action for Care of the Elderly (CACE), Cumbernauld and Kilsyth Care, Cumbernauld Community Forum, Cumbernauld Cottage Trust, Cumbernauld FM, Cumbernauld Free Church of Scotland, Cumbernauld Historical Society, Cumbernauld Junior Netball Club, Cumbernauld Male Voice Choir, Cumbernauld Poverty Action, Cumbernauld Primary School Parent Council, Cumbernauld Resilience, Cumbernauld Scrabble Club, Home-Start Glasgow North and North Lanarkshire, Kilsyth Golden Gloves, Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust, North Lanarkshire Disability Forum, North Lanarkshire Women’s Aid, PALS (Play and Learning Support), Recap, SPRED Cumbernauld, St Mungo’s Parish Church Cumbernauld, Wee Cycle Cumbernauld and Westfield Senior Citizens Group.
It is anticipated that funding will be awarded to around half of all proposals (the most-voted-for ones), with the exact number of organisations receiving grants depending on the monetary value of the top ranked proposals.
This Participatory Budgeting (PB) activity forms part of Cumbernauld CAN (Community Anchor Network), a Scottish Government-supported project introduced by Cornerstone House Centre in 2020 which aims to develop the connected capacity of the Greater Cumbernauld community. Over a three-year period, the project is striving to enable Cumbernauld residents and organisations to work together to become better at responding to local needs, built on the theme of community empowerment.
The funds being distributed are from Small Grants PB Fund Round 4, a small grants programme which was announced as part of Cumbernauld CAN in January 2022. Through Small Grants PB Fund Round 4, community-led voluntary groups benefiting the local area were invited to bid for a small grant of between £100 and £1,000 under the PB model. This was open to charities, SCIOs, unincorporated associations and any other not-for-profit group.
In August 2021, more than 1,000 Survey votes resulted in awarding of funds to 31 organisations through Small Grants PB Fund Round 3. This funding round enabled activities such as the provision of free nutritious meals to older and at-risk people during the COVID-19 pandemic, the transportation of a Mobile Flight Simulator for community use in the Cumbernauld area, the facilitation of a large summer outing to Blair Drummond Safari Park for families of children with support needs and the advancement of a community football facility in Balloch Eastfield.
This took the sum distributed to Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Northern Corridor community groups through the project to a total of £43,912 since 2020, with 53 community groups benefiting altogether.
If your organisation operates within Greater Cumbernauld but has missed out an applying for funding through Small Grants PB Fund Round 4, the good news is that plans are afoot for Cornerstone House Centre to release a further round of PB funding later in the year.
Originally, the project had intended for funding allocation to be decided through in-person Community Voting Events, however this has not been possible to date because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
An online Community Voting Survey was considered as a fair alternative way for members of the public to have the opportunity to cast their vote, also ensuring that applicant organisations do not have to wait many more months for a decision.
If you would like further information or have an enquiry in relation to the Community Voting process or Cumbernauld CAN project, please telephone Cornerstone House Centre on 01236 739220 or email events@cornerstone-house.org.uk.
Click Here to Complete the Community Voting Survey for Small Grants PB Fund Round 4
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Why not circulate the Community Voting Survey link (www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CommunityVotingCumbernauld) so friends and family members can complete it? After all, the more people that vote for your favourite proposals, the better the chance they have of being funded. Remember that each individual is only allowed to complete the Survey once.
Be fast however, as Survey votes cannot be submitted after 12.00noon on Friday 18 March 2022. Final Survey results and details of which proposals have been awarded funding will be published next month.