Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Minister Andrew Muir MLA announced today that his Department’s 2024 Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme (RMCGS) has awarded just over £1.5million grant aid to 915 rural voluntary and community sector organisations.
Micro Capital grants of between £500 and £2,000 were available to rural community-led, voluntary organisations from the Tackling Rural Poverty and Social Isolation (TRPSI) funded Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme for projects tackling issues of local poverty and / or social isolation or implementing energy efficiency measures / environmental improvements.
Minister Muir was speaking at Holywood Shared Town Men’s Shed, where he handed over their grant aid Letter of Offer for £1,020.05, and a Letter of Offer to Helen’s Bay and Crawfordsburn Residents’ Association for £1,789.70 to develop Bayburn Community Garden.
Minister Muir said: “I am delighted to be able to announce that 915 community-led voluntary organisations have been issued with Letters of Offer awarding total grants of just over £1.5million to help them address locally identified poverty or social isolation issues.”
The Minister continued: “The Rural Micro Capital Grant Scheme is an extremely good-fit within my Department’s Tackling Rural Poverty and Social Isolation Framework, helping rural community-led, voluntary organisations to identify and deliver projects which tackle localised issues of poverty and / or social isolation. This bottom-up approach to addressing local issues is to be commended and I sincerely thank all the voluntary and community groups across Northern Ireland for their work in building social cohesion in their areas.”
Minister Muir added: “This project at Holywood Shared Town Men’s Shed will help to modernise their premises to create a space that brings people together to undertake practical projects for the good of the community, promoting a sense of community and wellbeing for participants, and in turn reducing social isolation. This is exactly the type of project the Scheme was designed to help.”
The scheme is being delivered by Rural Support Networks on behalf of DAERA. Speaking at the event, Nicholas McCrickard manager of County Down Rural Community Network added: “The range of projects benefitting from Rural Micro Grants is amazing. Men’s sheds such as Holywood and Community Gardens such as Bayburn are making a huge difference to local people. These projects directly impact on positive mental and physical health, keeping people active in loads of ways. We thank the volunteers who set these projects up and keep them running and we thank DAERA for their commitment to supporting projects like these.”
