Assembly Member Mick Bates urges charities, community and voluntary groups in Montgomeryshire not to be disheartened by continued talk of cuts and highlights that sources of funding are available to continue their excellent work, but they may be harder to find and groups must be encouraged to reach out and ask for support.
Mr Bates comments:
“The Lloyds TSB Foundation has written to me to highlight the £11,000 investment they made last year between two charities in Montgomeryshire which work incredibly hard within the community to help tackle disadvantage. This is very welcome investment and it is great to see banks supporting community work during this time of recession.
“Communities and our society are at their strongest when people come together to tackle their shared problems and volunteering plays a hugely important role in that. However, I am concerned that there will be many charities, voluntary and community groups and businesses struggling to survive and keep their excellent work going.
“With the billions of pounds of taxpayers money that has been poured into saving these financial institutions, it is crucial that we see some of this returned with investments into the community and that banks start lending again with responsible loans to individuals and businesses.
“In the current economic climate the Government purse strings will be pulled ever tighter, but this must not threaten the valuable work of our charities, community and voluntary groups in Montgomeryshire. There is a lot of support available for charity and community work, whether from grant schemes run by financial organisations, trusts, foundations, lottery schemes and more.
“People must not be disheartened by continued talks of cuts to funding but may need to look harder and wider for sources of funding. Organisations must be encouraged to reach out for support, ask around for ideas if finance is tight and apply for whatever source of funding possible to keep their organisation running and performing fantastic work within our communities.”
