Supporting communities  |  22 Oct 2020

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Christchurch City Council will give the Arts Centre a $150,000 grant to help it keep its doors open to the public.

The grant will come from the Council’s Metropolitan Discretionary Response Fund and will be used by the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board to help cover the historic centre’s operating costs for the coming year.

“Like many organisations the Arts Centre has taken a financial hit due to the impacts of COVID-19 and is struggling financially. This grant will allow the Trust Board to retain basic staffing levels so it can keep the centre open and continue to offer community events and programmes,’’ says Councillor Sara Templeton, who chairs the Council’s Sustainability and Community Resilience Committee.

“The Arts Centre is an important cultural and heritage hub in our city and we do not want to see it closing its doors to the public.’’

The Sustainability and Community Resilience Committee also agreed to give Metropolitan Discretionary Response Fund grants to the:

Christchurch City Mission: It is getting a $75,000 grant to put towards the operating costs of its Street Outreach Service, which helps those living on the streets.

Imagination Station: It will use its $35,000 grant to help pay its salary and wage costs.

Cultivate Christchurch: The youth development organisation is getting a $20,000 grant to help pay the wages of the General Manager and Youth Internship Coordinator.

New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective: It is getting a $40,099 grant to put towards the cost of wages and mobile phone for their Street Outreach Coordinator, who provides supports to street-based sex workers.

The Tramway Historical Society: It will receive a $15,000 grant to help with its trolley bus system restoration.

Once these grants have been made, the Metropolitan Discretionary Response Fund will have a balance of $225,913.

The Council has made an extra $500,000 of funding available to communities group this financial year to help support them through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of that funding is being dispersed through the Metropolitan Discretionary Response Fund.