Community Halls and Marae Fund

The Community Halls and Marae Fund is designed to provide assistance to Community operated, not for profit Halls and Marae, which are available for public use. This fund is to assist Community Hall providers (both Council and Community owned and Marae to run their facility.

The fund is designed to assist in the maintenance and running cost of community halls (either council owned or community owned) and marae.  To apply you must be under the council owned or community owned council register.

Funding available

Small sums of money ($500 - $3000) are granted to assist hall and marae Management Committees to provide meeting spaces for local communities in ways that best meet the needs of the community.

For the financial year from 1 July 2009  to 30 June 2010, the total funding available from the General Halls (Marae) Fund (for Council Owned and Community Owned Halls) is $42,000.

This year funds will be allocated on the basis of need and priority, with a ceiling of $3,000 per hall / marae.

The funding is to be applied to one or more of the following categories.

• Facility maintenance costs
  For example: plumbing, electrical maintenance, painting, fittings and fixtures, roofing.
• Costs relating to health and safety
  For example: removing dangerous structures
• Improvements to the facility
  For example: carpet and lino replacement
• Small scale equipment
  For example: chairs and tables, urns, cups and saucers.
• Facility promotion
  For example: placing advertisements, posters etc.
• General and volunteer costs
  For example: volunteer expenses, fees, training, administrative costs, social audits, strategic planning, etc.

The fund is not intended to cover costs of facility activities. Other Council funding schemes are eligible for these.

This General Halls and Marae Fund does not cover major capital improvements (such as new roof, extensions, etc.). Council owned halls should apply directly to Council via the Annual Plan process for such capital works projects.

Community owned halls and marae could apply to the Community Owned Halls and Marae Capital Works Fund as identified below, or other funding agencies, such as the ASB, the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts.

Criteria

To be eligible, applicants must:

• Be a locally run and managed community hall provider, or an Iwi based and urban/community based marae, which is:
• run on a not for profit basis
• open to the general public to use and/or hire operating within Waitakere City boundaries
• not managed by a single focussed group e.g. Scouts/sports clubs/interest groups

Unfortunately all other community facility providers, such as school-based marae, sports clubs, scouts, school halls, church halls etc. are not eligible to apply to this fund, given its size and the availability of other funding sources for these physical buildings. These facility providers can however call Council to be referred to a range of funding sources for which they can apply.

There are nineteen Community Halls as defined by Council in the Waitakere area consisting of nine Council owned halls and ten community owned halls, spread over rural, suburban and urban areas. In addition, there are two marae located in the Waitakere area who would be eligible for this fund.

The following factors will be taken into account by Council's assessment group for both the General Halls and Marae Fund (for Council and Community Owned Halls).

• Community Assistance Funds (CAF) policy and guidelines requirements and criteria.
• The current condition of the facility and its need of repair & renovation (quality of facility)
• Health and Safety issues of the facility
• Whether application includes items that have been identified in Council's Community Halls Review (December 2006) or is from a marae
• The groups financial situation (current and projected)
• The amount the facility is being used (activities, number of users, range of uses)
• Are there other facilities in the area? (location in relation to other community halls)
• Whether the group has access to other funds, (capacity for income)
• Demonstrated community support for the project and benefit of the programme.

The particular socio-economic status of the area the group/ organisation is located in. For example, the groups or organisations located in deprived areas may have a higher need for assistance than those that are not.