You say we pay

Published by Riverside for Riverside in Housing and also in Communities

Riverside has pledged to invest £20,000 into community initiatives in Liverpool over the next 12 months.

The social landlord held a meeting at the weekend to allow the community to vote for the projects they thought most deserved the cash.

Following a presentation by 24 community groups, residents were invited to rate each one to determine the most popular.

The funding will be split between 21 initiatives across Dovecot, Deysbrook, Knotty Ash, Yew Tree, Altfinch, Broadgreen and West Derby. The initiatives range from performing arts, sports and music projects to gardening workshops, debt advice services and writing groups.

A significant proportion of the money will be spent trying to keep bored teenagers out of trouble in the school holidays. Merseytravel have been granted £1,000 to put towards Your Choice, an annual conference for Year 6 pupils from four primary schools, which educates children about the consequences of anti-social behaviour. Merseyside Police, through the Liverpool Safer Schools Diversionary Activity Programme, will receive £1,000 to help develop a programme of activities over the school holidays and build relationships between authority and youngsters. SMARTYs will also benefit from £1,000, which will allow them to continue running a voluntary youth club in Mab Lane over the summer.

Rhoda Wilkinson, Riverside’s Neighbourhood Investment Officer, said: “It’s really important that we invest in the projects that matter to our residents so we were really pleased with the number of people who came out to vote for the projects they thought deserved our support.

“Although we couldn’t fund every one, we will be offering help to those who were unsuccessful to enable them to find funding elsewhere.”