The winners of a special £120,000 fund to help communities across north Wales have been announced.
The Your Community, Your Choice fund supports grass-roots projects and is supported by the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT) and North Wales Police.
Applications were shortlisted before 16,000 votes were cast by the public in an online ballot.
Your Community, Your Choice is celebrating its 10th anniversary and, over the past 10 years, a total of over £500,000 has been awarded to more than 150 projects working to reduce crime. The funding comes partly from money seized by the courts through the Proceeds of Crime Act, with the rest from the Police and Crime Commissioner. Winners fromAnglesey and Gwynedd were chosen. The Gwynedd winners were Byw’n Iach - Mentro Allan project, to provide access to many of their outside facilities including synthetic pitches, tennis courts and outdoor table tennis in all 11 Leisure Centres within the county, Harlech and Ardudwy Leisure’s Youth Activities Group project and Seren Ffestiniog Cyf’s - Serennu yn y Cylch project.
Alun Jones, Byw’n Iach partnership unit manager, said: “We are extremely grateful to everyone who voted for our scheme/project, which will mean we can open our facilities outside for everyone to use during the holidays.
“This offer will be available across all our leisure centres and it is hoped that opening up the facilities will mean expanding the opportunities to engage in sport and physical activity and that then helps to reduce the unsociable behaviour seen because people have nothing to do.
“We understand that due to the cost-of-Living crisis, things are very difficult on local families at the moment.
“So being able to offer the free facilities to children and young people during the holidays is certainly welcome. We look forward to working with Gwynedd Youth Service on the scheme and also working collaboratively with community police on a number of projects during the holidays.”
Donna Morris-Collins, centre lead at Harlech and Ardudwy Lesiure, said: “Harlech and Ardudwy Leisure are over the moon to receive the PACT funding to allow us to offer our local youths a weekly activity and centre to socialise.
“We are excited to be working with Youth Services to provide a vital service to our youths and allow them to socialise with friends in a safe and warm environment. Harlech and Ardudwy Leisure would like to thank North Wales Police for their support to the area and for the opportunity to the centre to offer an after-school activity to our youths.”
The Seren charity supports people with learning and physical disabilities through domestic, day and respite services.
As part of their provision, the Cylch yr Efail unit concentrates on welfare using art, crafts, mobility and music to enrichen the experiences of individuals.
“Recently, they borrowed an interactive projector that has been created especially for disabled people, including programmes for individuals on the autistic spectrum.
“They now wish to purchase their own machine as it proved very popular.”