Safer Shetland - Choices for community justice
Shetland Community Justice Partnership PB event – March 2019
£25,000 of funding was made available by the Shetland Community Justice Partnership to third sector groups to apply for grants of up to £5,000 each. Projects required to be aimed towards prevention of offending behaviour or improving outcomes for people with offences or those affected by crime.
Aims of the PB process:
• Engagement with the community around community justice
• Building capacity/inclusion of the third sector in community justice activity
• Contribute towards meeting the aims of the community justice plan
Shetland Communtiy Justice Partnership invited applications from third sector groups. Applications were received for 11 projects in total, of which 10 met the criteria and were put forward to the public vote on Saturday 16 March 2019.
Information was shared about the projects bidding for funding prior to the event via the Safer Shetland website, Facebook, twitter and local media (online, radio and print). Groups also undertook their own advertising campaigns to encourage their supporters to come along and vote.
All groups bidding for funding attended at the event which was marketplace style, with each running a stall and chatting to members of the public about their project/service, and answering questions.
260 members of the community attended at the event and voted for their 3 favourite projects by placing one of 3 tokens in the corresponding bucket. Groups were ranked according to how many votes they received and groups were allocated their requested amount in ascending order. With most groups bidding for £5,000, there were 5 successful projects: Shetland Women’s Aid, Shetland Rape Crisis, Dogs Against Drugs, Moving on Employment Project & Advocacy Shetland.
Projects will be supported and monitored by the Shetland Community Justice Partnership for the duration of the grant period (April 2019-March 2020). Councillor Alastair Cooper said: “We’re really pleased with the turn-out for the public vote that demonstrates the support for community justice work in Shetland. I’d like to congratulate the five organisations who will receive funding towards their projects that will help to make a positive difference to the quality of life in Shetland.”