LAURIE WEIR
There is an opportunity to apply for an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant up to $100,000 and Cathy McNally is jumping on the band wagon.
The Perth director of community services sought approval from the committee of the whole on June 4 during a regular meeting to apply for the funding opportunity.
She said if successful, she’d love to be able to hire a program coordinator to help facilitate recreation programming.
The application is due this summer and will be submitted to the Trillium Foundation Seed Grant Program for an upset limit of $100,000 to further recreation programming and planning.
“Seed grants are offered through the Ontario Trillium Foundation to help organizations build resilience and enhance their ability to deliver programs and services that directly benefit community members,” McNally wrote in her report to council.
Applicants can apply for funding to support organizational planning, pilot a new program, and build their capacity to plan for future programs and services.
“Staff capacity for recreational opportunities is at a maximum at this point,” McNally noted, “however, the community consistently provides feedback on enhancing our recreational program offerings. As such, the
municipality would like to apply to this grant to explore avenues for expanding our recreation offerings, including fitness program offerings and long-term planning to help address predicted capacity issues with future development and thus population growth.”
McNally said she’d like to explore the opportunities to hire a program coordinator/volunteer coordinator to help with some programming development they can look at for future development, “and equalize that as a salary.”
Coun. Gary Waterfield asked if successful with the grant application would any funding go to the Darou Farm working group (on the creation of a dog park and subsequent parklands).
McNally said it was too early on to determine logistics as she will be spending several weeks putting together the application.
“The Ontario Trillium Foundation releases new grants every year so in the future we can look at development opportunities for the Darou Farm,” McNally said. “But specific to this, I really would love to use it for staffing even on a temporary basis to help with program opportunities.”
Councillors unanimously supported the request from the director to apply for the grant.
