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MP Richard Thomson welcomes community resilience fund from SSEN


By Kirsty Brown

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Gordon MP Richard Thomson has welcomed Scottish and Southern Energy Network’s fund to assist community resilience which is inviting local organisations to apply for grants of up to £20,000.

Following their consultation in January, the SSEN Community Resilience Fund is now open for community groups based within the SSEN network.

Applications can be made for grants of up to £20,000 for projects which create a stronger, co-ordinated resilience framework for local communities.

Commenting, Richard Thomson MP said: “Storm Arwen brought with it some excellent examples of communities pulling together in the face of adverse circumstances to help the more vulnerable, but it also flagged-up areas where resilience can be improved.

“As communities are encouraged to be more resilient in the face of such events where the public services can sometimes be stretched, I am pleased that SSEN are making available grants to community groups to enhance the support they are able to provide locally.”

Successful projects are required to meet at least one of the following criteria areas:

- Resilience for Emergency Events - To enhance community facilities, service and communication specifically to support the local response in the event of a significant emergency event.

- Vulnerability - To protect the welfare of vulnerable community members through enhancing their resilience and improving community participation and effectiveness.

Given that ‘Vulnerability’ can be interpreted as a very broad criteria area, priority is given to:

  • Projects which support communities who are particularly remote or isolated and have experienced emergency events due to poor weather in the past. Projects which demonstrate innovative approaches to improving the resilience of vulnerable community members.
  • Projects which support areas which can be difficult for emergency services to respond to events in.
  • Projects from communities which have not applied before and have been identified as having especially low resilience.
  • Projects which provide advice on or improve the energy efficiency of vulnerable households.

Fund exclusions include projects that do not benefit people living in the SSEN network area; activities that were the responsibility of the statutory authorities; retrospective funding and projects that were of the sole benefit to an individual.

The deadline is April 29.

Resilient Communities Fund can be accessed here: www.ssen.co.uk/resiliencefund/


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