Not enough community groups are taking advantage of the $40,000 that Port Coquitlam city hall sets aside each year for matching grants.
That was the talk at Tuesday’s meeting when three requests for cash went before the city’s committee for recommendation to council.
The committee approved the proposes — $2,163 for PoCo Heritage, $2,016 for the Ducks Volleyball Club and $5,000 for the PoCo Kinsmen — but also noted the lack of applications to the program; last year, the city also received just three grant requests.
By contrast, interest in the bi-annual Community Cultural Development Investment Program (CCDIP) has boomed since council doubled its budget in 2017 to promote more events and festivals in PoCo; that one-time funding push also came with more marketing and free grant-writing workshops for arts and culture organizations.
Yesterday, the committee greenlighted eight CCDIP applications totalling $22,000 and recommended council also transfer money out of the self-help matching grant program to top up the CCDIP pot.
If approved by council, the cash will be awarded to: Art Focus. Polonez Polish-Canadian Dance Society, Theatrix Youtheatre Society (two bids), Tri-City School of Music (two bids), artist Jessica Nelson and the Felice Choir.
Coun. Penner said there hasn’t been much uptake with the self-help matching grants, which pay for up to 50% of a project and were initially designed to assist neighbourhood and non-organized groups. He suggested it be expanded.
The committee voted for city staff to prepare a report to look at options to make the self-help matching grant program criteria more flexible, to raise more awareness about the funding and, possibly, to combine the program with the CCDIP.
