More than £8 million has been invested in Caerphilly County Borough’s voluntary sector over the last ten years.
Some of the projects that have been successful in attracting funding have been Senghenydd Community Centre,Ystrad Mynach Boys and Girls Club and Taraggan Educational Gardens.
The £8 million of funding was secured through the Technical Assistance Fund, which was set up by Caerphilly County Borough Council and the Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations (GAVO).
Since 2001, the fund has given £250,000 to organisations and groups which then use the money to fund applications for other funding.
The council has recently announced that funding has been secured for the financial year 2012/13 to continue providing the Technical Assistance fund to Voluntary Organisations.
Mike Bridgman, Assistant Director of GAVO said “Only last week we have heard that two other projects through the Technical Assistance Scheme, have been successful in attracting a total of £590,298. What a good result on a small investment.”
The Technical Assistance Fund scheme is designed to shorten the waiting time for Voluntary Organisations when making an application for further funding in order to provide outline architectural drawings, ground surveys and building condition surveys.
The main principal behind the funding was that, through the information gained by using the scheme, organisations would be in a strengthened position to apply for major funding, to complete their project.
Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations, and its various voluntary Committees, are correctly taking the credit for attracting this money for use in the voluntary sector in the Borough.
GAVO and the work GAVO does in this area is becoming more essential due to Westminister Government Cuts and austerity measures, the officers of GAVO mostly go unacknowledged for the valuable work they do day in day out for and on behalf of charities and voluntary organisations.