Front row from left: Jessica Shaw, Georgia Beattie, Ellie Dent and Macauley Fletcher-Carruthers.
A East Staffordshire dance group has been awarded £3,000 from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s People Power Fund to boost young people’s confidence.
Touch of Life has been awarded the funding to run a positive activities programme through dancing that provides social educational opportunities for regular members and to encourage more young people to participate.
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 throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Ellis said: “The Commissioner’s People Power Fund puts half a million pounds back into local communities and is easy and simple to apply for.
“The dance group is excellent and it is great to see young people engaging in something that they find fun which keeps them active and off the streets.
“It is important to engage with young people which means we can intervene early to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour.”
Dean Carruthers, co-ordinator and managing director of Touch of Life said: “The funding has given an opportunity for young people to enhance their dancing skills and has enabled Touch of Life to take the dancers to shows and external workshops.
“The workshops and the activities have helped to improve the confidence of the young people to enter competitions and perform in and out of the community.
“The dance group that Mr Ellis watched have recently come third in the under 18 intermediate British Dance Organisation championships in Stoke.
“The funding has helped to educate and raise their dancing and teaching skills within Touch of Life and to raise their confidence and self-esteem. We are still promoting to encourage more dancers to come on board.”
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.
