Free workshop to help get grants

AN annual workshop event aimed at assisting groups and organisations to write grants is returning to Barkly Square next month.

Coming in time for the City of Ballarat’s Community Impact Grant program, the free event is being hosted by the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House, Ballarat Neighbourhood Centre, and the municipality.

BENH’s community governance officer Kay Miller will run the workshop alongside BNC’s community development officer Sandi Darrington, and the city of Ballarat’s Sophie Atkinson.

Ms Miller said it’ll give attendees advice on best practices.

“We’ll be talking about the practical aspects of writing a grant application,” she said. “We’ll have examples of things that work and just giving people a heads-up on some good ideas.

“It’s interactive too so it won’t just be us talking, we’ll be asking questions all the way through and people can give examples.”

“We hope people go away from this with a clear idea of how they’re going to word their application to give them the best chance possible of being successful.”

The previous grant writing workshop took place in August last year which Ms Miller said attracted more than 30 attendees.

Peter Elshaug, assistant secretary and bowls coordinator at Victoria Bowling Club, previously applied for the community grant to fund the purchase of about 15 sets of bowls for the club and said the workshop would have been “very helpful.”

“If I’d had that opportunity, I would’ve gone to something like that at a moment’s notice,” he said.

“It would’ve really helped to give some basics on what you need to apply. For a lot of people, that would be a great opportunity.”

The workshop will take place on Wednesday, 8 February from 10am to 11.30am in person followed by a second online session from 7pm to 8.30pm.

Visit the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House website to register.