Swansea-based Coastal Housing has made the first awards from its new Horizon fund: a £10K pot to support community projects in the city and county.

The Horizon fund is part of the successful CrowdfundSwansea partnership between Swansea Council and Spacehive – a platform that helps people raise funds for initiatives that will benefit society.

‘Anyone crowdfunding through CrowdfundSwansea can already pitch for pledges of up to £5K from the council’s fund’ explains Coastal Chief Executive Debbie Green.

‘Our Horizon fund offers pledges of up to £1K for projects that we think will particularly benefit areas where we work or that meet Coastal’s values and aims. ‘Whilst the ethos of crowdfunding is collective action by individuals, we hope that our fund – and the council’s – will help boost fundraising efforts and mean more projects are successfully funded. We want and need more change in our communities, driven by the passion and expertise of local people.’

Coastal has made 2 £1,000 awards to the ‘Sweet Pickings’ and ‘Onwards and Uplands’ projects.

Sweet Pickings aims to harvest unused community fruit around Swansea to benefit local food banks and other providers, whilst Onwards and Uplands will bring more green space and biodiversity to the Brynmill and Uplands areas of Swansea. Both projects are still actively fundraising and can be supported via the CrowdfundSwansea page.

Misha Dhanak, CEO of Spacehive, said: “Hearing ideas directly from residents as they reimagine their local areas with the support of their community is incredibly inspiring. Spacehive is proud to work in partnership with Swansea Council and we welcome the new Horizon Fund put forward by Coastal Housing as part of Crowdfund Swansea. Together we can help local people bring their ambitious ideas to life.”

For more information on how to enter a project into the Autumn funding round, contact support@spacehive.com