Mayor Keith Campbell - Governance and Commuications Portfolio Report - 14 December 2016

Council’s Community Grant Program

Council provides a range of grants to support the provision of programs, services and events in our community. One of the areas in which Council currently provides funding is under the Community Grant Program which includes the:

• Regional Arts Development Fund, which is a partnership between Arts Queensland and Council;
• Mayor’s Community Benefit Fund;
• Community Assistance Grants;
• Community Annualised Grants;
• Elite Performance Grants;
• Subsidised Hall Hire;
• In-kind Assistance; and the
• Councillor Discretionary Fund

Council determines annually the amount of funding to be made available under this grant program with Council distributing over $350,000 to the community in 2015/2016. 

I believe this funding is important to assist our community organisations, who in the majority of cases double or triple the value of this support in the delivery of their programs, activities and events.  I also believe that it is important for the sustainability of this Council, and our community, to periodically review the funding programs which Council provides and to this end my fellow Councillors and I are currently reviewing all community service obligations provided by Council, of which the Community Grant Program is a component.  In the coming months, I will be providing further information as to how Council will reinvigorate and rejuvenate our approach to the provision of assistance to the community.

Media Engagement

Council undertakes an extensive program of media engagement to ensure Council’s ratepayers, residents, businesses, community organisations and visitors are properly informed through the media of Council activities, decisions and the delivery of services.  To provide some context, I would like to provide the following statistics for the first five (5) months of 2016/17:

• Media releases provided – 20
• Engagements to respond to media enquiries – 223
• Facebook  social media posts – 322
• Facebook total reach – 308,602