Applications for the Community Recreation, Art, Culture, and Heritage Investment (CRACH) Grant Program will now be reviewed more frequently.

Under the previous structure, applications were received and reviewed every two months, however, Cold Lake City Council has decided to increase the frequency to every month, after seeing continued issues with the timing of applications for upcoming events and increasing requests for financial assistance. The CRACH Grant applications are reviewed by the Community Grant Advisory Committee (CGAC) to determine their eligibility before being presented to Council for approval.

“There are a lot of groups in our community that apply for this grant and need financial assistance,” said Mayor Craig Copeland. “But with events happening year-round, we were finding that the timing for applications being approved on time was getting tight for some organizations that were requesting a quick turnaround, and we want to make the process as smooth as possible.”

Other minor changes to the grant policy were made to clean up some awkward phrasing in the policy, as well as to align the policy with existing practices and past funding decisions made by the CGAC and council. Applications will also need to be received at least 30 days prior to the event, which was formerly 60 days.

The mandatory requirement to have applications attend a committee meeting as a delegation was also changed to make this a recommendation, rather than a requirement for the application process. Grant applicants, however, are strongly recommended to attend the CGAC meeting as a delegation, as this will be the applicant’s sole opportunity to formally answer questions and address the committee about the application.

The City of Cold Lake encourages all non-profit organizations, private businesses, educational institutions, and other government organizations, such as indigenous communities, looking for financial assistance in relation recreation, art, culture, and heritage programming to make an application for funding.

More information on the CRACH Grant and other grants can be found at www.coldlake.com/grants