Six more youth-led projects in RCT are celebrating this week after receiving Vol Factor grants from Interlink RCT’s Youth Grant Panel.

Back in September three projects (RCT People First, Aberdare Valley Football League and Avant Theatre) walked away from Interlink RCT’s Vol Factor Visioning Event £500 richer after the Panel guided them through a successful project design session.

Last week the Panel approved six further projects, as follows:
£496.78 Active Valleys “Pan Disability Sports Project”
£462 Fernhill Youth Provision “Community Consultation”
£440 Active Valleys “Football in the Community Project”
£400 Ferndale Youth Project “Get Creative Project”
£366.22 Llwynypia Boys and Girls Club “Youth Form Development”
£340 Llanharan Youth Drop In “Drop In’s Got Talent”

All six projects will encourage more young people aged 14-25 to volunteer on their projects. Ferndale Youth Project will carry out a community consultation to identify ‘grotspots’ so they can look at ways they can improve the local area, while Llwynypia Boys and Girls Club will use their grant to promote and encourage young people to get involved in their new Youth Forum. Fernhill Youth Project will use volunteers to get younger kids involved in a Creative Project while Llanharan Youth Drop In will use young volunteers to p

ut on a contest showcasing local young talent. Active Valleys have been funded to run two sports projects, one Football in the Community Scheme, known as the ‘RCT Footy Fest’, and a disability sports project targeting students and non-students with physical and learning disabilities.

The Vol Factor grant scheme, funded by the Welsh Government’s Gwirvol Programme via WCVA, supports projects to involve 14-25 in volunteering projects in Rhondda Cynon Taff, and is administered locally by Interli

nk RCT.

Brendan Hopkins from Active Valleys said: “I want to say a big thank you for awarding the funding to us. This will allow us to provide a great sporting opportunity to schools in RCT.”

Interlink’s Youth Volunteering Advisor Thomas Crockett said: “It was clear from the Panel’s feedback that the calibre of applications was again very high this year and they were blown away by the enthusiasm shown by some of the projects during the interview process. Back in the summer the Panel reduced the maximum grant available in a bid to widen the impact of the grant scheme and by funding nine separate projects in RCT they are sure to encourage large numbers of young people in RCT to get involved with their local; youth-led projects.”

The Vol Factor grant scheme has now closed for 2017/8 but successful projects will be showcased at a Youth Volunteering Celebration Evening in June 2018. For more information on the scheme please call Thomas Crockett on 01443 846200, or email him at tcrockett@interlinkrct.org.uk.

Brendan Hopkins (left) and Frazer Phillips (right) from Active Communities received funding to run a Football in the Community Project