Welcome to our May eNewsletter. We hope this finds you safe and well and enjoying greater freedoms of life at the orange traffic light setting. Our office is now back open to visitors and like many organisations and businesses we are pleased to be reconnecting with people face to face. However, to protect staff and visitors to our office we require all visitors to be fully vaccinated.

Speaking of things returning to normality, it was wonderful to see University of Otago graduands stream along George St once again over the weekend. At a personal level I was delighted to see my youngest finally able to graduate in person. Let us hope that this may be the light at the end of the tunnel and that we’re heading to the new normal with more opportunities to connect with friends and whanau.

We have had a busy couple of months with a number of board meetings, significant grants being awarded and launching new funds. 

Otago Community Trust was pleased to launch the Trust’s new Tamariki and Rangatahi Strategy and Funds in late March. This is an innovative and exciting new suite of funds aimed at lifting the capability of young people in the Otago region, which our Community Engagement Advisor - Liz is spearheading with the support of all staff and trustees. 

In March trustees approved a $2.2 million grant to support the development of the new Clutha Community Hub / Te Pou ō Mata-Au. This is a very significant project for the South Otago area and one that will have significant benefits for the district for generations to come.

In April, the Trust funded over $1.6 million in support of a wide range of community projects and we were pleased to continue our commitment to providing multi-year funding to several well-established social service providers. Anglican Family Care, Methodist Mission Southern, Otago Youth Wellness Trust and Presbyterian Support Otago will receive multi-year funding for a further three years to support the services and programmes that they implement across Otago.

A quick reminder that 1 April 2022 marked the start of a new financial year for the Trust. All organisations who received funding in the period from 1 April 2021 to 31st March 2022 are now eligible to once again apply for funding, alongside any new charities seeking funding support.

We are pleased to announce that recently Trustees approved a general grants budget of $10 million for the 2022/23 financial year. As always, we encourage community organisations to contact the Trust if you have any questions around funding, funding timelines and / or how to apply for a grant.

Finally, I trust you enjoy reading this newsletter and hearing about some of the things we have been involved with in recent months. 

Ngā mihi

Barbara Bridger, CE