50 locals get best-practice training to access regional small grants

Fifty persons including public sector officers and leaders from various community-based groups recently completed best-practices training geared towards ensuring success when applying for the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF SPC) Small Grants Programme.

A media release from the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) who facilitated the training, said the exercise involved two portions of a workshop series.

The first portion provided information on best practices for public officers partnering with community-based organisations (CBOs) and included topics such as community engagement, advocacy, and inclusivity.

The second was geared towards executive members of CBOs and covered areas including action planning, accounting, and resource mobilisation.

Community Development Specialist with the Caribbean Development Bank’s Community Disaster Risk Reduction Fund, Richardo Aiken, explained the importance of the training sessions for the territory.

“We recognise that as public resources are limited, CBOs play an important role in the overall resilience of all the states served by the CDB. This workshop will help CBOs in the British Virgin Islands improve their operations generally and, we hope, strengthen their activities when it comes to disaster risk management,” he stated.

Strong relationship between CBOs and public sector

DDM’s Planning & Preparedness, Manager Sheniah Armstrong said the projects proposed during the workshop speaks on the existing strong relationships between community groups and the public sector in the BVI.

She said: “Many non-government organisations and community-based organisations in the territory are accustomed to accomplishing projects together such as in our own SMART Communities initiative. It is encouraging to see that workshop participants have great ideas for further partnerships.”

The CCRIF SPC Small Grants Programme provides grants from $5,000 to $25,000 to Caribbean CBOs for a number of projects.

These include disaster risk management, engineering, climate change adaptation, training and capacity building, and environmental management initiatives that directly reduce a community’s vulnerability.