The City of Duncan still has $54,400 in its COVID-19 grant program and is encouraging new applications.
At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, city council began the grant program that is intended to support residents and businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19 by leveraging other funding or encouraging “made in Duncan” concepts.
The city earmarked $100,000 for the program, and there is a $10,000 cap for each application. So far four of 14 have been approved by council.
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The applications that were denied were largely considered by council to not fit the criteria of the program, or didn’t directly benefit the people or businesses in the city.
Three of the successful $10,000 applications were from the Downtown Duncan Business Improvement Area, and they include grants for its Buy Local Campaign, Station Street Food Court and for the concrete picnic tables at the food court.
The other successful application was from the Cowichan Green Community and its Neighbourhood Revitalization Projects program.
“This opportunity supports organizations to start new programs that would not qualify for provincial or federal funding opportunities, or to leverage existing funding,” a press release from the city said. “Applicants must be registered organizations — individual applicants will not qualify — and they must have an office located in the Cowichan Valley. Funds must not be used to pay existing staff members’ salaries.”
To be successful, the grant applications must support Duncan businesses, residents, or both impacted by COVID-19 or establish recovery programs; demonstrate that the organization has exhausted other potential opportunities for funding from local, provincial, and federal sources; and focus substantially on city businesses, residents, or both.
“Please see the COVID-19 Grant-in-Aid Application Form for more details,” the press release said.
“The form is available on the City’s website www.duncan.ca. We thank all other applications that have been received to date. Only new applications will be considered.”