Privacy settings

Council’s financial commitment to voluntary organisations holds fast

In the last financial year Winchester City Council gave grants totalling approximately £670,000 to local voluntary organisations who support the Council to deliver its strategic priorities.

Grants

The Council awarded 127 grants to approximately 99 organisations across the Winchester District, ranging from £500 to £168,000.  Community organisations apply annually for one-off projects, small grants or core funding which assists them with their operating overheads. 

One of the charities which has benefited from core funding is Winchester Youth Counselling.  This helps them to offer free counselling and therapeutic support to young people aged 11-25 who live in the District.  A young person who recently received counselling from Winchester Youth Counselling (WYC) stated:

Counselling has helped me to not keep things to myself and my counsellor has helped me through hard times.  Counselling has taught me not to keep things to myself and then explode.  I would recommend WYC to someone else as it is very helpful and supportive. Thank you for your help.

Melissa Fletcher, Funding and Development Officer at Winchester City Council, said:

The work being undertaken by these voluntary organisations is a lifeline for many of our residents, providing vital support services and community activities.  These organisations are not only supporting our residents they are also importantly assisting the Council to deliver its strategic aims – and in many cases improving the quality of our lives by providing education, entertainment and new experiences.

Winchester City Council is committed to developing a thriving voluntary sector. The Council also funds a support service which provides local groups with funding information, networking and training opportunities and organisational support in order to assist them in becoming more resilient and sustainable.  The support service is provided by Community First, which is based at Winchester Discovery Centre in Jewry Street but operates an active programme of one-to-one advisory visits and ‘clinics’ across the District.

Mandy Harris, Head of Community Development at Community First in the Winchester District, said:

Since being awarded the contract to support the local voluntary sector here we have been delighted to work in partnership with the many diverse and vibrant not-for-profit groups operating in the Winchester area.  Over the past year we have assisted local groups to secure over £140,000 of external funding to strengthen community based services delivered to local people. The grants available from Winchester City Council enable community groups to undertake projects that directly support the needs of residents, trying out new approaches, buying new equipment and even refurbishing the premises where they operate. 

The Council Strategy for 2017-2020 sets out five key objectives ranging from helping residents to be healthier and happier to becoming more entrepreneurial as an organisation.  Encouraging volunteering is one of the goals within its ‘healthier and happier’ objective, recognising that the act of volunteering is good for mental and physical wellbeing but also that voluntary organisations have the potential to work in partnership with local authorities to extend and evolve critical social services at a time of financial constraint.

Top
Winchester City Council logo

Cookies Policy

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer.

Some of these cookies are necessary to make the site work. We’d also like to use optional cookies to help improve your experience on the site. You can manage your optional cookie preferences below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences. Your preferences can be changed at any time.

Review your privacy settings