Community
11 December, 2024
Funding for businesses available
THE 12 Apostles Food Artisans Inc received a boost under the Corangamite Shire’s Business Assistance Scheme (BAS).
Shire coordinator wellbeing economy Samantha Fox said the BAS provides business, building owners and community the opportunity to apply for support including financial assistance.
She said there was one application under stream three – Community Enterprise which had been approved.
The 12 Apostles Food Artisans Inc received $2000 for the development of a new website, training and upskilling which will enable the group to self-manage the content and co-ordinate the ongoing updates for the 12 Apostles Food Artisans site.
“The BAS scheme is an ongoing grant and business support scheme that is open for applications year round,” Ms Fox said.
“Council officers work with applicants to enable applications to be ‘grant ready’.
“Applications are assessed against the relevant stream criteria and evaluated by an assessment panel.”
Under council’s 2024/25 budget the program had a budget of $90,000, which now sits at $79,055.
Councillors encouraged businesses to apply for the funding.
“This is a very good grant opportunity for businesses across Corangamite,” Cr Ruth Gstrein said.
“We are five months into the financial year and there’s only been about $9000 taken up at this time which is unusual.
“People aren’t aware that things have changed a bit.”
Cr Jamie Vogels agreed and said there was still a fair “whack” of the budget left.
“A little bit of money goes a long way,” he said.
“Sometimes that can be the difference between something starting and something not.”
Cr Jo Beard encouraged applicants to support local businesses when looking at spending their funds.
“We have stated in the policy that it’s preferred to support local businesses,” she said.
“Let’s not forget to look after locals wherever we can when we want to complete a project.”
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