First 2023/2024 Community Grants awarded to local organisations

Councillors voted to distribute the first round of community grants at the December 12 meeting, finishing the year on a positive note.

The eight recipients include the Griffith Golf Club, Musicians Club and Griffith Public School and more, receiving various amounts to help fund their own projects.

Griffith Aged Support Service will be using their $2500 grant to take some of Griffith's elderly residents on a special field trip out to Junee in the new year.

Support worker Yvette Pastro said that it was always nice to take clients out of town for a trip.

"We're a group and individual support so we like to do one or two trips out of town in the year," she said.

"We went to the Temora museums this year, visited Altina Wildlife Park. We try to support the theatre as well by going up there."

This year, they'll be taking off to the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory, and though a date hasn't been set yet, they were hoping to land a visit around Easter.

Council's director of economic and organisational development Shireen Donaldson said that they hoped to help support projects that would address overlooked groups and needs.

"The aim is to support new initiatives, activities and projects that increase community capacity to address unmet needs, improve well-being and harmony, and reduce isolation of disadvantaged groups," she said.

"Congratulations to the successful applicants which represent a wide variety of communities right across Griffith."

Mayor Doug Curran said that despite calls to suspend community grants after the budget crunch earlier in the year, they would be keeping up the program.

"We have heard from some parts of the community that during these difficult financial periods we should suspend our community grants program, but I honestly feel the benefit to some of the most needy segments of our community are worth fighting for and I want to see the program continue."