Council
31 July, 2025
Funds flows but program falls under budget
CORANGAMITE Shire Council awarded 41 applications under the Ready Now Grants Program throughout the past year as part of the new-look program designed to support volunteers.
The report detailing the results for the 2024-2025 financial year were reviewed and noted at this month’s Ordinary Meeting of Council, which showed grants totalling $18,297 were awarded against a budget of $25,000.
Included among the funding recipients were the Noorat Christmas Tree committee ($500) to purchase baubles and lights last October, the Cobrico Hall Committee of Management ($500) towards food for the annual barbecue last November and the Terang Men’s Shed ($500) for a new chisel set in February this year.
In March this year, Corangamite Shire Kokoda Expedition’s fundraiser movie night event screening the film Kokoda also received $500 of funding and the Boorcan Cricket Club ($500) received funding towards new shelves to store clothing and gear.
Councillor Geraldine Conheady said it was “heartening” to see the positive impact of the Ready Now Grants program.
“When you look down the list of the applicants for the 2024-2025 financial year, it highlights just how many small community groups are benefitting from this particular grant stream,” she said.
“There’s such a wide variety of purposes those funds are being applied for, and when you think of the number of people involved in those communities and the work that they do, that’s a lot of community support.
“The best thing, really, is the benefit to those community groups, and that we’re able to provide that relatively small amount of funding, but it has such a big impact.
“It’s such an easy, accessible and reliable process for them.
“I’m really quite proud we’ve been able to support our communities in this way.”
The program is designed to provide up to $500 in quick, small grants to volunteer-based community groups for projects which are not readily available under other grant programs.
Councillor Laurie Hickey said the grants program was a great way to support volunteers within the community.
“It has been a wide selection of groups and organisations who have been recipients of this money,” he said.
“It’s not a lot of money, but it’s still enough to keep the home fires burning and to keep ticking over with some of the projects that people run.”
The Ready Now Grants Program was adopted in September 2023 and replaced the previous Quick Response Grants Program which operated for more than a decade.
The Ready Now Grants Program is due for renew under council’s overall grant policy review and will be back before council in November 2025.
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