Greater Manchester Police have invested £37,000 of cash seized from criminals into community projects in parts of Salford affected by serious crime.
The participatory budgeting scheme, named “Community Piggy Bank”, was developed to provide community groups with the opportunity to apply for up to £1,500 from GMP.
The funding has been taken from criminals in Greater Manchester through the Proceeds of Crime Act and has been given back to the community.
Following serious incidents in Little Hulton and Eccles involving Organised Crime, GMP has invested the money to support communities most affected by serious crime. In total, 36 groups were awarded funding.
Each group are asked to attend an event and provide a brief two minute presentation to other members of the community.
Once they have pitched everyone attending votes for which projects they feel would benefit from the funding and this continues until the money has all gone.
Those groups who were unsuccessful on the event are supported by GMP and Salford Community and Voluntary Services to search for alternative funding pots.
Following on from the event GMP staff work with all groups to develop a positive working relationship and in some cases individual groups have shared resources and equipment from meeting at the event.
Superintendent Mark Kenny, of GMP’s Salford division, said: “This is a fantastic event which uses money seized from criminals who are intent on damaging the community to support projects that forge stronger ties between people and help to improve the area.
“Importantly the allocation of the money is not decided by the police, the community are invited to bid for the funding and representatives from the local area vote to decide who receives it.
“To be able to give away this amount of money is amazing and through this event, organisations were able to network and find out how they could work with each other. I hope that projects that have received funding will benefit the community for years to come.”
