22 community and environmental groups benefit from Council's community grant program

3 May 2022

Seventeen local community organisations will share nearly $35,000 in funding in the second round of community grants, and five environmental groups will share $10,000 from the environmental grants program.

Mount Barker District Council offers two rounds of community grants and one round of environmental grants each financial year.

The grant programs support non-profit community organisations to develop and deliver projects and programs which benefit, enhance and meet the needs of the community or benefit the local and regional environment.

Mount Barker District Council Mayor Ann Ferguson said the Community and Environmental Grant programs help community organisations deliver services and activities that benefit the broader community, and fosters partnerships between community organisations and Council.

“Once again we saw a wide range of funding applications that included community services, social welfare, arts, culture and heritage, wellbeing, access, health, recreation and youth programs.”

A wide range of projects benefitting the community have received funding from the latest round of grants including:

Development of a vegetable garden on the TAFESA site by the Adelaide Hills Vocational College with the produce from the garden used to provide healthy food for the young people enrolled at the college;

A dirt starting track adjacent to the new pump track at the Callington Recreation Park;

A Media Lab in association with the Mount Barker Community Library where people can get involved in a range of media projects like film making, photography, audio recording and music composition;

Safety, monitoring and rescue equipment to support wildlife rescue and care in Mount Barker; and

Exotic tree management as part of the Nairne Creek restoration.

"We are really keen to connect with our community and support projects and initiatives that are community led” Ms Ferguson said, “It is fantastic to see so many wonderful ideas that communities are coming up with to improve their local area through planned assistance and equitable distribution of limited funding from council.”