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The winners of a special £50,000 fund to help communities across North Wales were announced at an event in Colwyn Bay on 23 February. The initiative, called Your Community, Your Choice, helps support grass-roots projects in the region and is supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT), the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, and North Wales Police.
Over the eleven years since Your Community, Your Choice started, almost £600,000 has been awarded to nearly 200 projects working to reduce crime in their neighbourhoods and also to support the priorities in the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan. The funding for Your Community, Your Choice comes partly from money seized by the courts through the Proceeds of Crime Act, with the rest coming from the Police and Crime Commissioner.
The successful groups and projects announced this year comprise:
Anglesey
- 1st Llanfairpwll Scouts - Facilities, tools and equipment for Talwrn Scout Campsite
Gwynedd
- Bangor Saints – ‘Lights on for Footie’ project
- Bethesda Cricket & Bowling Club – A project to create a welcoming and family friendly outside space at Bethesda Cricket and Bowling Club
- Cymdeithias Gymunedol Y Bala a Phenllyn – funding for the ‘Connecting our Next Generation’ project
- Porthi Dre Caernarfon – Funding for Clwb Pobl Ifanc Porthi Dre youth club
- Llanrug Silver Band – An instruments for beginners project
Conwy
- Youth Shedz – Mochdre Hub
- Kaleidoscope Theatre Company – Funding to support the Annual Show
Denbighshire
- Forget-Me-Not Chorus, Bodelwyddan
- Prestatyn Sports FC – New goal posts project
Flintshire
- Aura Wales Shotton Boxing Club – Shotton Boxing Club and Community Hubs
- The Rockworks Academy – ‘Breaking Barriers’ project
- Buckley Cricket Club - Creating a lighter, brighter and safer environment for all at Buckley Cricket Club.
Wrexham
- Community Wellness Wrexham – Community wellness project
- Erddig Nordic Walkers – Away days, events and activities project
- Wrexham Community Gardeners – First impressions initiative
Pan-North Wales projects
- DangerPoint – Safer North Wales project
- Only Boys Aloud - Only Boys Aloud Choir North Wales
- Rhyl Raptors Wheelchair Sports Club - Additional storage facilities project
The winners of the pan-North Wales projects that received funding were delighted with their success as part of the scheme.
Cat Harvey-Aldcroft, Deputy Manager, Dangerpoint, Talacre said: “DangerPoint are really grateful for the funding and support from Your Community, Your Choice. We believe that partnership working such as this is essential to maintaining the high-quality safety messages that we deliver at the centre and the funding received will enable us to limit the barriers to our service users visiting from across North Wales.”
Carys Wynne-Morgan, Chief Executive of Aloud Cymru agreed, commenting: “The Aloud Charity is delighted to have been awarded funding from the Your Community, Your Choice fund. This money will support us to provide weekly singing opportunities for boys of secondary school age across the North Wales region. In doing this, we will be offering safe spaces for young people to engage alongside providing them with positive role models, helping them become more engaged in their local community, nurturing confidence and improving their mental health.”
The team at Rhyl Raptors Wheelchair Sports Club said: “We are delighted and grateful to Your Community, Your Choice for their continued support and enthusiasm for what we do at Rhyl Raptors. The work we do to offer physical activity and sporting opportunities for those of all ages who need to use a sports wheelchair to participate is massively important to a group of people who otherwise, are often not able access the benefits of being active and being part of a team.
“The funding itself will help safeguard our club and allow us to continue to grow and reach more people of all ages and abilities by expanding our storage capacity for ever growing stock of sports wheelchairs.”
North Wales Police & Crime Commissioner Andy Dunbobbin said: “I am very happy to see the breadth and variety of organisations in this year’s Your Community, Your Choice fund – the whole of North Wales is represented, from Anglesey to Wrexham. Organisations include those that work with the young, with older people, as well as sports, arts and health and wellbeing groups.
“Supporting communities is a key part of my plan for policing and tackling crime in the region and our communities in North Wales are resilient and caring places. Organisations like those that have received funding are the backbone of these neighbourhoods, they step in and step up day after day to help and support their communities and I cannot thank them enough for their work.”
PACT Chairman Ashley Rogers commented: “Your Community, Your Choice is all about helping communities and empowering organisations and individuals to make a difference for local residents. We are all richer for their work. The funding for the initiative is made even more special by the fact that it comes partly from money seized from criminals, meaning that it is paid back to the people. I am very pleased that we have been able to help so many worthwhile projects this year and hope that the funding awarded continues to make a difference for a long time to come.”North Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Chris Allsop said: “On behalf of North Wales Police I am delighted to see the Your Community, Your Choice initiative awarding even more worthwhile projects from across the region. Many of these projects undertake valuable outreach work in their communities. They also help to reduce instances of anti-social behaviour and other negative activity