The Thornhill Community Health Group is looking to allocate up to £50,000 this year to one-off projects ranging from £1000 to £10,000 that have an idea for a health focused project aiming to benefit the Thornhill community.

As part of the agreement of Thornhill Plus You's contribution to build the ‘Thornhill Centre for Healthy Living', the Primary Care Trust has provided a pot of funding that can be used to pay for small to medium sized projects, which aim to improve the health of the Thornhill community.

If you would like more information about the Thornhill Community Health Fund or would like to apply for a funding application form, please contact Paula Windebank at Thornhill Plus You on 023 8091 5402 or email pwindebank@thornhillplusyou.co.uk .

Thornhill Residents Decide a ‘Healthier' Future for their Community

To decide how this money is allocated, an event will take place on Saturday 28 th June enabling all Thornhill residents to vote, X-factor style, for their preferred health and wellbeing projects, all of which will be presented at this event. This event will be one of the first of its kind in the UK .

This scheme, Participatory Budgeting, will be spending a set amount of money provided by Southampton Primary Care Trust. The Thornhill Community Health Group, a group of local residents and agency representatives, usually oversee how this allocated. This group have decided to pilot this scheme in health and wellbeing projects in Thornhill which will be pioneering for Southampton .

All Thornhill residents will be invited to the event, where candidates will be presenting their healthy ideas and projects. Once the ideas have been presented, residents will have to vote for the projects they think will best benefit the Thornhill community. This way everyone in the community can have a deciding influence over how the community health fund is spent.

Using Participatory Budgeting engages local communities in making decisions on how local budgets are spent. The process aims to give local people a say in prioritising services, or projects, through community-led debates, neighbourhood votes and public meetings.

For more information about the event or participatory budgeting please contact Paula Windebank at Thornhill Plus You on 023 8091 5402 or email pwindebank@thornhillplusyou.co.uk .