Funding roadshow in Dannevirke

Leah Sole: "It's a great fund. It's awesome."

Schools, local clubs and sports teams looking for funding for sports and activity programmes may be able to apply for Tu Manawa Active Aotearoa funding.

They are invited to register for the roadshow being held at the Tararua District Council chambers on August 9.

Sport Manawatu recreation adviser for Tararua Leah Sole said it is the first time the roadshow has been done and is meant to provide information to the groups on the funding criteria.

Tu Manawa, which is a fund from Sport New Zealand and is administered by Sport Manawatu was brought in last year.

"It kind of replaced the KiwiSport funding, which was the old model," Sole said.

There have already been several groups which have benefitted from the funding, such as a play trailer for the Tararua District Council, which can be borrowed for events.

Sole said it has already had several bookings.

Wai Splash and the Dannevirke Smallbore Rifle club have also successfully applied for funding.

Sole said the idea of the funding was to provide access to sport and activity programmes to those groups facing barriers which prevent them from being more active.

The focus is especially on girls and young women from ages five to 24, disabled children and young people from age five to 18 and refugees and migrant young people from age five to 18.

Sole said there were two funds.

"There's a fast fund which is anything they're applying for that's under $10,000. We can give the go ahead for that really quickly."

The second was over $10,000 and up to $40,000, and it takes about a month before a decision is made and notified.

There are two funding rounds each year.

Sole said the fast fund is open from August 1 to November 30, or until the funds run out, with the second round being from February 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022.

The second fund is open from August 1 to August 31 and again in February 2022.

Sole said Tu Manawa was an activation fund to be used to help cover programme or service delivery costs.

"It doesn't fund everything," she said.

Other things like project delivery, venue or equipment hire or transport to get to an event were examples of what was eligible for the funding.

Groups would not be able to apply for something retroactively.

"It's got to be something that's coming up."

Costs for professional sports teams or athletes were not part of the funding programme.

"Often we get called up because being in Tararua they have to travel," Sole said.

"If they make a rep team they've got to travel quite far to get to their games, but we can't fund that.

"But we have another rural travel fund that Sport Manawatu and the council have that helps with that instead."

Sole said costs such as administration or ongoing costs like rent and power, as well as prizes were not eligible under the criteria.

Professional or semi-professional sport teams as well as early childhood services are also not eligible to apply.

To register: Sport Manawatu