The Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s School Sustainability and Resilience Fund

The School Sustainability and Resilience Fund, established by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, makes small grants to schools, kura, kōhanga, kindergartens, early childhood education centres and other education organisations across the Bay of Plenty rohe to support environmental sustainability. Unlike many other grant programmes, funding decisions are made by the community, and young people themselves, through a participatory process.

The Council begins by inviting applications for funding from schools, kura, kōhanga, kindergartens, and early childhood education centres to undertake projects they have designed. The Council then assesses all applications against the eligibility criteria before online public voting begins.

In the public voting, each voter can allocate $25,000 towards different projects (each project application has a cost estimate associated with it). Each time the voter selects the ‘fund this’ button of an application, the cost of that item will be deducted from their budget. Once public voting has finished, the Youth Panel voting begins, involving projects from the public voting round that were not successful (second chance opportunity). Each Youth Panel members also has a ‘voting budget’ of $25,000.

Online meetings are held before the Youth Panel voting day to inform the process and provide guidance to panel members before making decisions. The public voting round for the 2024 grant-making process involved 781 individuals who cast a total of 8,074 votes on 38 projects.

Past funded projects have included edible gardens, chicken coops, a sustainable seed library, compost bins, and promoting active modes of transport.