An Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh councillor has been appointed to spearhead a program that encourages community groups to help themselves.
Jennifer Miltenburg explains council has been re-thinking the role of the municipality in rural Ontario and at the same time looking for ways to help community groups deal with the loss of schools and faith-based institutions in rural communities.
Miltenburg says over the past two years they've met with several community groups and asked them what they needed and how the municipality could help, and they now have several initiatives underway.
They've created a community calendar, they're partnering with GDCI on the construction of information kiosks for each community so they can post their information as well as share information, and they're collaborating on an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant.
Miltenburg adds they've also created a community granting policy to help people fill out grant application. It was posted on their web site last year, but few people used it. They realized it would be used more often if they actually showed people how to use it.