Nearly half of the Dunedin City Council’s Covid-19 support fund could be used to sustain social wellbeing in the city.
A proposal to allocate $435,000 of $950,000 to ‘‘recovering initiatives for social wellbeing and economic development objectives’’ will be considered by the council on Tuesday.
Topping the list in council community development and events manager Joy Gunn and corporate planner Sharon Bodeker’s report to the council is a $100,000 boost to the council’s community grants fund.
All proposed to receive increased funding are Otepoti Events ($75,000); the Maori innovation and development fund ($60,000); the consumer electricity fund ($50,000); the sports fund ($50,000); the Dunedin Dream Brokerage ($35,000); the Pasifika innovation and development fund ($30,000); the Boosted fund ($25,000); and neighbourhood matching grants ($10,000).
The proposed funding was focused not only on what the council could do but also what the Government was doing and the proposal attempted to avoid duplication, the staff report said.
The council-supported economic development group Grow Dunedin Partnership was also working on an economic recovery plan.
After the council’s annual plan deliberations when the Covid-19 support fund was initiated, staff contacted about 60 organisations ‘‘to discuss the opportunities arising’’ from its establishment.
‘‘The clear message received from those organisations was that while there is an immediate need for support, there will likely be a further need in the future. The full scope and nature of what that need will be is not known at this time,’’ the report said.
A review of the allocation of the fund is proposed within the next three months as is a report to be provided to the council in September.
