The Minister of Sport and Recreation, the Hon. Grant Robertson, recently announced two new national funds that are set to have a major effect on play, active recreation and sport organisations in Northland.

The first one is an extension of the Community Resilience Fund (CRF) that has already provided over $170,000 of funding for Northland sports organisations during the April-June lockdown period.

The CRF#2 is once again being administered by Sport Northland and is now open for applications.

The good news for Northland is that a wider range of play, active recreation and sports organisations can now apply. In addition to those 80 odd organisations that received funding through the first CRF process, the funding is available to all organisations whose main purpose is to provide physical activity opportunities through play, active recreation and sport.

The only other criteria for eligibility is that the organisation must be an incorporated society or charitable trust and must be experiencing financial hardship as a result of COVID-19. Unlike the previous funding round, applicants do not now need to be affiliated to a national body.

Applicants will be able to apply for 3 months costs from July-Sept for a much broader range of costs (including most operational costs outside of salaries and wages) than was possible under the first round of funding.

The new fund will be very welcomed by Northland sport and recreation organisations – feedback received by Sport Northland from regional sports organisations has identified that next 3-6 months is likely to be most critical in terms of remaining financially viable (even more so than the first months of lockdown).

All organisations will be able to apply for up to $25,000 each.

The second fund will be an extension of the previous Kiwisport fund, which will now be called Tu Manawa Active Aotearoa. Once again, a wider range of play, active recreation and sports organisations will be eligible.

Tu Manawa will be an activation fund to provide quality opportunities in play, active recreation and sport for Northland children and young people. Where KiwiSport was a fund focussed on supporting organised sport participation, this new fund aims to support a wider range of activities and reach those communities who are less active or missing out.

Sport Northland is keen to align this fund with their targeted community approach where work is being undertaken with high deprivation communities on what is important to them in terms of play, active recreation and sport opportunities. It is anticipated that this fund will help activate these opportunities in communities such as Dargaville, Kaikohe, Kaitaia, Kawakawa/Moerewa, Hikurangi and Otangarei.

Tu Manawa will open for applications towards the end of August, at which time more information will be available for potential applicants.