Community groups battle it out for share of £35,000 funding pot

Published by James Allan for Salix Homes in Communities and also in Housing

A swarm of bees will go head to head with a teenage musician as they battle it out for a cash grant.

A community bee project and a 17-year-old guitar player with a dream to bring music to the masses are just two of the worthy causes hoping to scoop their share of a £35,000 funding pot provided by Salford-based housing provider Salix Homes.

A total of 18 community projects based in the central Salford area have now been shortlisted in the Your Salix, Your Say fund.

Now in its third year Your Salix, Your Say gives community groups and organisations the chance to bid for between £50 and £5,000 to help finance worthwhile projects that will help improve the area where they live.

The Kersal Vale Allotment Society, who run a community bee project, are bidding for £2,256 to build a science laboratory where they can test the bees for diseases.

Meanwhile musician Joshua Taylor, 17, is hoping to secure £1,015 to organise a gig for young people on the Poets estate in Swinton.

Other groups hoping for a share of the funding pot include the Out In Salford group, who are hoping to expand their popular Peel Park Pink Picnic project to rival Manchester Pride; and the Hornbeam Residents Association who are bidding for £2,395 to build a green house for their Growing for Gold gardening club.

Sue Sutton, director of customer and neighbourhood services at Salix Homes, said: “This is the third time we have organised the Your Salix, Your Say fund and it is always a tremendous success.

“We have been overwhelmed by the level of applicants and it is just wonderful to see all the good work that is going on in our communities. It is humbling to see just how committed some people are to their community and improving facilities for the benefit of others.

“We are very proud to support our community groups in their endeavours and we hope whoever the lucky winners are, the money will really go some way to improving the areas where they live.”

Decision Day takes place on Saturday, January 26 at Albion High School when every hopeful bidder will showcase their project before taking to the polls to vote which project they believe should get the money.

The groups with the most votes will then get their requested bid until the £35,000 funding pot is empty, but groups cannot vote for their own project.

The 18 groups bidding for funding are the Ordsall Community Allotment Society, Out in Salford, Just Youth, Joshua Taylor, Young Parents Group, Racecourse Residents’ Association, Hornbeam Residents’ Association, Lombardy Court Community Group, Kersal Vale Allotment Society, St Charles Community Group, Terry Pearce, Beechfarm Residents, Beechfarm Residents Association, Celebrating Diversity Group, Magnolia Court, Creative, Women Working Together and Disability Focus Group.

Case Studies

Kersal Vale Allotment Society

Members of the Kersal Vale Allotment Society are buzzing at the success of their bee project.

Three years ago the green-fingered folk at the allotment site decided to turn their hand to bee keeping in a bid to provide an educational facility for locals.

Salix Homes helped get the project off the ground with a funding boost from its Your Salix, Your Say fund and the money was used to purchase hives, bee suits and to enable members to undergo specialist bee keeper training.

The project proved to be a resounding success, with the allotments now home to four hives and 250,000 bees.

Harry Davies, chairman of the allotment society said: “It has been a really big success.

“We set it up for educational purposes and we often have schools and other groups coming down to have a look.

“Nationwide people are saying how bad the bees have been this year in producing honey because of the weather, but our bees are doing brilliantly.

“Last year we got 140lb in weight of honey, which is quite remarkable.”

The allotment society is now bidding for £2,256 of Your Salix, Your Say funding to build a bee laboratory on the site.

The scientific lab will enable the members to examine the honey bees under a microscope to check them for diseases which could potentially have a devastating effect on the hives.

Peel Park Pink Picnic

What started as a group of friends planning a summer picnic has now grown to a highlight of the calendar year forSalford’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.

Friends Lee Bowditch and Adrian Palmer, who at the time was running the Salix Homes LGBT group, got together to organise a picnic at Peel Park, next to Salford University.

The idea rapidly grew and the Peel Park Pink Picnic was born.

Now in its third year, hundreds of people are expected to attend the popular event in July with performances lined up from the likes of the Manchester Gay Chorus.

Organiser Lee, 33, has applied for £2,500 from the Your Salix, Your Say fund to help expand the event even further.

Lee said: “It’s such a fantastic event and it’s been a real success so far.

“It’s not just for the LGBT community, it’s an open event for everyone and we have had some really positive feedback.

“It has helped to break down barriers in communities and the dream is to expand it to run alongside Manchester Pride - it could become Salford Pride.”