Causeway Coast & Glens councillors welcome grant scheme for Borough's volunteers
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough councillors have welcomed the return of a grant programme for volunteer organisations throughout the borough.
At November’s Leisure and Development Committee meeting, members approved 24 grant programmes for the 2026/27 period, including a pilot Volunteering Small Grant Programme.
According to an officers’ report, £20,000 in funding will be provided to support the volunteering community to recruit, support and recognise volunteers. The maximum grant award per applicant organisation will be £1,000.
Community and voluntary sector organisations, including sporting organisations, can apply and applicant organisations must not have an annual income exceeding £100,000 per year.
DUP Alderman Aaron Callan welcomed the scheme as volunteer organisations “are sometimes forgotten”, and asked if council had engaged with volunteer groups about the plans.
“As someone who’s volunteered with many organisations, I know the volunteers are usually the ones that are relied on the heaviest,” he said.
“So is that something that we’ve engaged with, to see is that something that volunteer groups in particular would welcome and need or is there anything else that could complement that?”
A Council officer said that, while council hasn’t carried out any formal engagement, they have “taken on board some of the queries, questions and requests that elected members have come with over the last few months”.
“Volunteering is not recognised,” they said. “Groups, the community involvement sector, particularly the small groups, struggle with paying things like travel costs, transport fees, [and] training fees for their volunteers.
“That’s the feedback that was coming directly to us from yourselves as elected members.
“The Department for Communities (DfC) used to have a small volunteering grant that they would have administered through LCDI (Limavady Community Development Initiative), who would have administered it for the whole council area.
“DfC stopped that funding pot a few years ago and the small community groups have really been feeling the impact of that.”
SDLP Councillor Ashleen Schenning said she was “delighted” to see a volunteer grant scheme return and added: “Being a past employee of LCDI and running the Volunteer Centre, I’m aware of the benefits that it was to those smaller organisations.
“We had over 80 organisations that benefited annually from the DfC grant and, because we’re a rural council, an awful lot of what happens in our communities is based on volunteers supporting it.
“It’s fantastic that council are going to support that moving forward and I look forward to seeing the difference it will make, because they haven’t had it since 2021.”
DUP Councillor Tanya Elder fully supported the return of volunteer funding, as volunteers are “invaluable to community organisations”.
She concluded: “I see it every single day and they’re the scaffolding that really keeps vital services going, so it’s really brilliant to see that this volunteering small grant programme is being so well supported here in the chamber.”