Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire | WYPCC

Over £2.6 million given to West Yorkshire community projects through the Safer Communities Fund

25 March 2019

Community projects in West Yorkshire have now received grants totalling over £2.6m from the Police and Crime Commissioner's Safer Communities Fund.

Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) runs the fund and hit the milestone amount following an awards last event week (21/03) for the latest round of the grant scheme.

57 community projects from across West Yorkshire received a share of over £250,000 at the event which was held in Calderdale at Halifax Academy.

Projects funded as part of the latest round include:

  • The School of Rock & Media Ltd in Bradford who will be working with young people for 2 sessions a week over a 12 month period to highlight issues of bullying, harassment and cuckooing vulnerable adults
  • Alpha House in Calderdale who will be working to reduce reoffending and the use of drugs by providing support to people on release from prison.
  • Huddersfield Giants Community Trust in who will be delivering assemblies across Kirklees to deter young people from carrying knives and other weapons.
  • LED Community Foundation in Leeds who will also be working with schools to increase awareness of the dangers and wide reaching consequences of carrying a knife.
  • SESKU Gridiron in Wakefield who use American Football to work with disengaged young people to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Safer Communities Fund was created by the PCC to give grants to voluntary, community groups, charities and partner organisations to help keep West Yorkshire communities safe and feeling safe which is the overarching vision of the Police and Crime Plan.

It is financed through money recovered from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) by West Yorkshire Police and prosecutors.

Mark Burns-Williamson, said: "It was another fantastic awards evening and a real pleasure to be able to provide support and funding, using money recovered from criminals, for a number of great causes.

"I launched the Safer Communities Fund in 2014 to help local groups make a real difference in their communities. The fund has now delivered across 15 grant rounds since then totalling £2,673,114.17 with 617 projects benefiting!

"However, I want the fund to be able to help even more during the ongoing austerity, so I have made the decision to increase the maximum grant from £5000 to £6000 for each project in future grant rounds.

"The next grant round of the fund opens for applications on 15 April and for the first time ever will have a split funding pot. Half of the money will be available to projects looking to either tackle drugs and alcohol misuse or work focusing on young people, with the other half open to applications looking to address any of the priorities in my Police and Crime Plan. More details will be available on my website shortly."

Assistant Chief Constable Catherine Hankinson said: "The Safer Communities Fund has been instrumental in helping organisations who work to keep people safe.

"By reinvesting seized assets, we can support the projects which continue to make a difference in West Yorkshire and give something back to communities which have been affected by criminality.

"I would encourage any organisation within West Yorkshire that feels they meet the criteria to apply for a grant."