Questions on funding

Published: August 4, 2011

IN their deliberations over which projects to fund, the council would do well to heed Winch Youth Centre chief Paul Perkins’s warning (Mountain now higher… Real decisions are needed, July 28) and realise that any requirement for projects to have short-term impact on our communities to get funding is in danger of ignoring the need for projects offering long-term commitment to change.

We recently attended a seminar run by the Older People’s Advocacy Alliance at which one participant questioned the real impact of her 30 years of service to the community! We fear those projects offering spectacular short-term impact, which may well be neither realistic nor sustainable, are more likely to be funded than those taking a longer term perspective. It is the latter that may well be those that have the most potential for impact on our communities.

As an organisation, the Somali Cultural Centre will continue to work in the community in the long term, as far as our funding situation allows, as we believe that this is the only way to have a real impact on our service users.

Is this really the kind of impact the council are looking for when making funding decisions?
John Kilvington
Ubah Egal
Somali Cultural Centre