A Stafford Community Centre has been given £2,900 from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s People Power Fund to offer activities for local people.
Konnektiv Arts has been awarded the funding to provide community activities at the Doxey Hub to increase community cohesion. They also provide an arts class for local people to offer positive experiences and for somewhere to go.
As part of his commitment to local communities, the Commissioner is providing £500,000 in 2015/16 through the People Power Fund in the form of grants of between £100 and £3,000. The fund is supporting locally-driven community safety activities in local areas throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Ellis said: “The Doxey Hub is a way for the local community to meet at a safe place and is especially valuable for young people to keep off the streets and be more involved in their community.
“It is important to engage with young people so that we can tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour and break the cycle of reoffending. Community centres like this need to be kept open so there is a safe place for people to go.”
Mervyn Price, director of Konnektiv Arts, said: “The funding that we received for the Doxey Hub has enabled us to offer more activities at the hub, especially for young people. We have developed new Karate, Drama and Arts clubs all of which are well attended and offer local people new opportunities for personal development.
“We have ran a series of open day events to encourage members of the local community of all ages to visit us and participate in arts and wellbeing activities. These events have enhanced community cohesion and allowed people of different generations to get together.
“We are effectively working with the local community and PCSOs to address issues of anti-social behaviour in the immediate area thereby making the hub a safer and more secure environment for the community to use.
“Konnektiv Arts are very grateful for the support we have received from the PCC and hope that we can build on our successes going forward as there is still much work to do to make the Doxey Hub an even more vibrant centre of community arts.”
The People Power Fund is one part of £2.5 million of Commissioner’s Community Funding for 2014/15. The Commissioner’s Locality Deal Fund has allocated money to local areas through working in partnership with local district and borough councils. Meanwhile, the
Commissioner’s Proceeds of Crime Fund is seeing 100 per cent of funding received by Staffordshire Police going back into local communities, through grants of between £3,000 and £15,000. It is made up of money seized from criminals as Staffordshire Police continue to strip offenders of their assets.
Successful projects in all three funding streams will deliver what’s important to local people based on the four priorities set out in the Commissioner’s Safer, Fairer, United
Communities Strategy – tackling the root causes of crime through early intervention, supporting victims and witnesses better, reducing reoffending and increasing public confidence.
