Communities Lining Up for Give Me Five Award
By admin
Issued on behalf of the Principality Building Society
A BLITZ on poverty in Newport, a bid to get drink and drug addicts to kick their habit and a project to bring the heart back to a “ghost town” in Gwent are lining up for a special £5,000 community hand-out this summer.
Raven House Trust, Islwyn Drug and Alcohol Project and Cwm Community Care are among more than a dozen community groups and charities to have applied so far for the South Wales Argus-Principality Give Me Five award.
All three organisations are in the first batch of applications to be made for the Give Me Five treasure chest being offered to community groups and charities across the Argus area.
The Newport-based Raven House Trust, which aims to relieve poverty and eliminate discrimination by giving practical help and support, would use the £5,000 award to provide those in need with furniture, clothes, bedding, household goods, food and toys to improve the lives of the poor in and around Wales’ third city. Last year the group helped 5,869 people and their families.
Blackwood-based Islwyn Drug and Alcohol Project is looking for the £5,000 to fund a detox support service for the Upper Rhymney Valley where there is a growing number of local people misusing alcohol and drugs. Rhymney is the sixth most deprived ward in Wales.
Cwm Community Care voluntary group is planning to raise a total of £25,000 to develop a Miners’ Memorial Garden to commemorate all those who died in the pits in the Ebbw Fawr Valley, including the 52 killed in the underground explosion at Marine Colliery, Cwm, 80 years ago.
The aim is for the memorial garden to be used by locals and visitors alike as a place to enjoy for its beauty, as an area for quiet reflection and as an historical reminder for future generations of the mining industry and the men who perished working in it.
Former Cwm Colliery miner Mervyn Robbins, 68, who is campaigning for the creation of the memorial garden, said: “The idea is not just to look back and remember the past, but to look forward and for the garden to be used to help in the regeneration of the community of Cwm, which since the building of the by-pass has become a ghost town.”
Interest in the Give Me Five award has also come from community groups in Cwmbran, Caerleon, Pontypool, Ebbw Vale and Caerphilly which are currently preparing their own applications.
Designed to help community organisations and charities make a real difference to the communities they serve, the Give Me Five campaign aims to give groups the chance to kick-start, complete or continue the good work of a worthwhile project close to the needs of its community.
The £5,000 award for the region covered by the Argus is one of five similar awards being given away this summer across Wales and the Borders by Principality Building Society to mark Principality’s achievement in reaching the significant milestone of £5 billion in assets.
Principality chief executive Peter Griffiths said: “We are delighted with the swift and positive response to the launch of the Give Me Five campaign in the South Wales Argus. The newspaper’s readers are already grasping the opportunity to apply for the £5,000 award on behalf of a local community group or charity, and we would encourage as many as possible to do so.
“The South Wales Argus-Principality Give Me Five £5,000 award will be given to a clearly-defined project which is making – or will make – a difference to the people within its community. It needs to be full of life, close to the community it serves, meets a defined need and is innovative.”
So, if you are involved in a project – or you benefit from or just know of one – that could do with a £5,000 injection of support to make a big difference to your community, then apply for the South Wales Argus-Principality Give Me Five award.
Nominations can be made by filling in the form alongside and we’ll send you an application form; or you can download a form from the Principality website at www.principality.co.uk/givemefive; call Give Me Five awards co-ordinator Pat Ashman on Cardiff 029 2077 3318; or pick up an application form at any Principality Building Society branch. The closing date for applications is September 14, 2007.
