Frome Town Council grants awarded

Recipients from the most recent round of grants from Frome Town Council are as follows:

Frome Renewable Energy Co-op: FRECO for short has been awarded £3,000 to manage a new programme, called ‘Cutting Carbon Emissions’ dedicated to working with Frome College and both middle schools, to help schools reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions. 

The scheme will work with bursars and building managers to conduct an energy audit outlining current consumption, strategies for reduction and associated cost savings, linking in with Somerset County Council’s new on-line energy tool.

They will also offer a student engagement programme, to work with the schools’ green groups where possible, to input into the energy audit, present the results to staff and governors, increase understanding of energy use, energy efficiency and sustainable energy and to conduct an awareness programme run by the students, such as a ‘Switch off’ campaign.

Frome Community College’s ‘Last Tree Dreaming’ project: have received £1500 for their ‘Last Tree Dreaming’ project, The project is an art installation in which a 250 year old, recently fallen 80 foot high oak tree will be inscribed with ‘dreams’ for the future. The tree will be transported from Stourhead to the college to serve as a time capsule for 100 years, before its final stage of needing to be laid down for the tree’s last 150 years or so of decay into humus.

Relate Mid Wiltshire: £250 contribution towards Relate Mid Wiltshire’s bursary scheme for Frome families who need relationship counselling. Over the last two years, as austerity taken its toll on family life, the requirement for counselling has increased and this valuable contribution will go towards helping families in need during increasingly difficult times.

Frome Society: £1,500 to be used to safeguard the future of more than 50 Cockey lamps in Frome which is half of the overall funds required to undertake this important work.

Currently, there is no definitive list of these architecturally and historically important street lamps. It is believed that some may only require cleaning and painting, others, such as the much-loved Valentine’s Lamp on Catherine Hill, will require considerably further funding to complete essential repairs. These lamps are much loved by Frome residents and are part of what makes the town beautiful.

Memorial Theatre: £500 towards the total £2,500 needed to upgrade the lighting in the Assembly Rooms. Existing fluorescent lights will be replaced with LED lights that will improve the ambience of the space as well as making cost and energy savings to the theatre.

Frome Canoe Club: £700 to enable them to facilitate weekly Wednesday sessions, which will culminate in a weekend challenge in Devon.

Mendip Community Transport: £1,000 as a partnership grant to Mendip Community Transport who provide transport for hundreds of Frome residents for whom public transport is inaccessible. It includes a hospital car service that augments the Dial-a-Ride service with volunteer drivers.

Merlin Theatre: The Merlin Theatre provides a year round programme of arts performance both professional and non-professional. The theatre also runs regular classes and workshops alongside one-off participatory projects. It has successfully survived the Arts Council cuts that saw many similar venues close in recent years and Frome Town Council has awarded them a partnership of £5,000 to continue into the next 12 months.

Frome FM: Since 2012 FromeFM has been broadcasting on 96.6 FM to an area within a five mile radius of Frome. From small beginnings the organisation has grown into a fully functioning community radio station currently located at The Old Fire Station on Christchurch Street West.  The service is provided by 120 volunteers.

This summer a radio club for 12-18 year olds began with some of the younger members interviewing festival-goers at the first Frome Children’s Festival.  A partnership grant of £3,000 has been awarded for future work including a project with the local YMCA who are planning to produce a series of programmes by and for homeless and disadvantaged young people.

Edventure: Frome – a youth and community-led social enterprise that supports unemployed young adults between the ages of 18-30. Edventure facilitates an environment where these young people can take the initiative and create a viable, sustainable future for themselves and their communities. Their partnership grant of £5,000 will help them to create a virtuous circle: young people gain practical skills and competences by working on projects put forward by local organisations. This helps meet local needs whilst giving young people the experience and confidence they require to start their own initiatives.

Allotments Association: A partnership grant of £3,000 to help continue a successful community outreach project that began two years ago. Support is provided to schools, community groups and less able gardeners. This can take the form of educational courses, ongoing learning or the creation of raised beds. One of the aims is to target low income families to improve food security and to investigate whether fresh produce could be included in Food Bank activities.

Incredible Edible Frome: the group create and maintain community spaces that are planted with edible foods freely available to the people of the town and that also pay attention to local wildlife habitats. Like the Allotments Association, there is a focus on hands-on education and direct projects with schools. They are productive and useful and also make Frome look blooming lovely!  They have been awarded a partnership grant of £3000 to continue their work.

Positive Action on Cancer: A partnership grant of £1,000 to help continue their free, professional counselling service to people in Frome affected by cancer or other life-threatening illness. It is a service offered by no other organisation in the area and the demand is larger than PAC can meet. Frome Town Council hopes their grant will enable PAC to continue to offer this outstanding service for residents.

Frome Development CIC: £300 to improve promotion and administration of their grants scheme. They plan to use this money to expand their breadth of funding sources in order that they are in a position to fund initiatives that are not purely charitable. These could be social enterprises that need seed funding to get established.

Selwood Bowling Club: Selwood Bowling Club have been successful in securing a £300 grant from Frome Town Council to add to the Community Environment Fund contribution of £2,000 made by Councillor Hudson. These funds will pay for the erection of a new street lamp to be erected in Tickleberry Alley to improve access and safety for residents and general pedestrians as well as bowling club users.

Frome Breastfeeding Group: a well-established, successful group supporting Frome mums who wish to breastfeed. Their current meeting venue will no longer be available from September onwards and the Town Council has awarded them a grant of £300 to pay for the rent of alternative meeting space in the short term until a long-term venue can be identified.

Golden Oldies: a fun singing and activity session open to everyone singing hits of the 50s onwards, a great opportunity for people to get together and meet likeminded friends. The Frome session takes place on the first Wednesday of every month at 2.00pm at Keyford Heights. Feedback has shown a very positive effect on the lives of those who have attended and the £300 goes towards running costs of these sessions.

Welshmill After Hours Club: A Youth Bank grant of £1,000 has been made via Edventure:Frome for a new initiative by Chloe Meanwell aimed at 16 to 21 year olds. Called the Welshmill After Hours Club, it will be a monthly event that alternates between a music night and a creative workshop. Chloe plans to start in September and run until at least next March.

The Twilight Zone: conceived by Jacob Lee, it has been awarded £981 via Young People Frome. It is a free after school club based on Mondays at Frome College open to anyone aged between 11 and 18. Members can choose to make a movie, record a song or produce some great graphic design,  with on hand support from a local media expert.