Applications open for £10,000 DofE funding for young people in Weymouth
The Town Council's making the money available to honour the late Duke of Edinburgh
Young people in Weymouth can get help towards a Duke of Edinburgh Award, after the town council made ten thousand pounds of funding available.
Schools, colleges and activity centres can apply for a share of the cash to help buy equipment and run training sessions for the scheme.
Mayor of Weymouth Cllr Colin Huckle told Greatest Hits Radio that the Town Council wanted to do something to honour Prince Philip following his death in April, aged 99.
‘Weymouth has a tradition of quite famous people being attached to it. We’ve got a number of plaques and statues and things around the town.
‘We thought, well, we could name a road after him – but that’s not particularly useful.
‘So then the Council noted that he was very heavily involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award.’
He added: ‘We felt that if we could help, even in a small way, to fund a few of our young people who may not otherwise have been able to enter into this, that would be good.’
65 years of the DofE Award
Established in 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was launched as a way of supporting the development of young people.
A bronze, silver, or gold award can be achieved through a number of activities, ranging from volunteering to outdoor sports such as mountain biking, rowing, walking, and water sports.
65 years on, the Award is now offered in more than 130 countries and territories, with nearly half a million 14-to-24-year-olds in the UK taking part.
Not even the pandemic could stop it – around 330,000 young people continued with their DofE activities, dedicating 1.8 million hours of volunteering.
Weymouth Town Council is now inviting DofE coordinators in the local areas to apply for a maximum of £1,000 towards their group.
Cllr Huckle says the funding aims to offer more opportunities to underprivileged young people.
‘Weymouth has got quite a mixture of people, and quite a lot of deprivation in the area. So we’re not all leafy Dorset countryside and things like that – we do have significant areas of deprivation.
‘The end goal is really to target a few underprivileged young people who may not be able to join the scheme without a little bit of extra help.’
When asked where the money would be coming from, Cllr Huckle said: ‘The Town Council has a significant budget – we’re one of the top five town councils in the country by size. We looked at our budgets, and we do have other grant schemes.
‘We’ve got another pot of money that we’ve been given, £50,000 in total, that we’re awarding to voluntary organisations to help them with not ongoing costs, but to purchase things they might need.
‘So we thought, we’ve still got some money in the pot – let’s find another £10,000 to put towards this scheme.’
Applications for funding from the £10,000 available can be made via Weymouth Town Council’s website, and close on Friday 15th October.