Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews has announced details of a new funding scheme that will inject £600k into community safety over the next year.
The Safety Fund will be shared among grassroots organisations which can successfully prove their project supports the Commissioner’s ambitions to drive down crime and protect the public.
Mr Matthews has set out a number of top priorities in his Police and Crime Plan to improve the policing services local people receive and ensure the force clamps down on the criminals that bring misery to communities across the two counties and city.
These include increasing policing visibility across the county, tackling rural crime, protecting businesses from crime, utilising the latest technology to solve and detect crime and strengthening neighbourhood policing by ensuring officers and staff are trained and equipped to do the best job possible.
The Commissioner also has further goals to reduce violent crime, improve the quality of evidence for domestic abuse investigations including greater use of body-worn cameras and protection orders/perpetrator programmes.
To help him deliver on his plans, the Commissioner ringfenced £250,000 in 2021-22 and a further £400,000 for 2022-23 for community-based crime prevention and diversion.
The Fund is open for applications from parish councils, schools, community-based groups and businesses (providing the firm can match-fund and supply their service free of charge).
Grants of up to a maximum of £10,000 will be available for successful applicants and there will be six separate funding rounds per year with each grant offer alternating between specialist and non-specialist themes.
Commenting on the fund, Mr Matthews said: “I want to make a real difference to our communities and I know there are many local people and organisations that share that ambition and are taking action every day to help our neighbourhoods thrive.
“This is an opportunity to help Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland become even safer in a number of ways, from supporting young people to turn away from crime, helping vulnerable people to recover from dependency issues or traumatic experiences or protecting their communities from crime or anti-social behaviour.
“Our city and two counties are different places with unique problems and priorities. For this reason, I am looking to support a broad range of projects across the LLR area to improve resilience, protect people from harm and increase opportunities to prevent people being drawn into crime and offending. If you think your project could support these goals, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.”
Funding can be used for projects and initiatives that meet any of the objectives of Mr Matthews’ Police and Crime Plan including new initiatives and provision, existing projects and replacement funding.
Applications can be submitted from Wednesday June 1st until Monday 25th July.
