00:00It's a new fund designed to turbo charge social regeneration across the five towns.
00:06And with £400,000 up for grabs, it's little wonder organisations and community groups were queuing out the door to
00:15find out how they could get a slice.
00:18People want to work together and actually sort of have their projects funded and sort of see what they can
00:23do for the community.
00:24A lot of it is volunteer led and so that need is there, that demand is there and so we're
00:29supporting it in Medway.
00:30This is the first year Medway has dished out grant funding like this.
00:35A response to the government scrapping the UK's Shared Prosperity Fund.
00:40Even though that national funding stream has come to an end, we've taken very much a proactive decision to continue
00:48the concept.
00:50For previous recipients, those grants were a game changer.
00:54With the special needs children, the impact, I believe, has been huge.
01:02Being together outside in a nice environment where there's lots of fun has made a big difference to people's lives
01:09and how they feel about things on their doorsteps.
01:12Medway Together is not a like-for-like copy of the Prosperity Fund.
01:17The projects being funded can have a wider range of goals.
01:22For Peter Chatwell, who used previous funding to reduce youth unemployment through the power of AI,
01:30Medway Together offers a fresh chance to reach those on the fringes of society.
01:38We're looking at this, at now, can we use this fund to deliver something even more impactful on some people
01:46who are even more marginalised.
01:49You know, so we are thinking about those people who have suffered with addiction.
01:53People who perhaps are coming out of prison.
01:56So looking at really marginalised people who are really struggling.
02:00With such financial pressures facing the local authority, the fund's future is not guaranteed.
02:08But its outcomes here in the community could be felt for years to come.
02:14Olly Lieder in Chatham.
Comments