The applications are in, and now it's up to the community to help decide how Bay of Plenty Regional Council's School Sustainability and Resilience Fund is shared out.

This year’s fund has $85,000 for distribution to environmental sustainability and climate change-preparation projects at schools and early childhood education centres, following a $50,000 boost to the fund from TECT, BayTrust and Trust Horizon. 

The fund uses an approach called participatory budgeting to decide who gets what funding – asking the community to vote on what projects they’d most like to see delivered. 

To be included for the vote, schools and early childhood education centres have submitted their project plans to the Regional Council over the past few weeks.

Thirty nine projects have met the fund’s criteria, and the community now has until May 10 to have their say and cast their votes. 

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Chief Executive Fiona McTavish says she's thrilled with the number and type of applications this year. 

“And now we’re at the fun part! We hope that each of the education providers that have put in an application get their community involved with the voting process. But don’t let that stop you from voting if you don’t have a connection with any of them – anyone can vote.

“And it’s easy. Just register at www.participate.boprc.govt.nz and choose your favourite projects before May 10.” 

Fiona says while these might be small projects, which schools will need to complete before Christmas, there is huge longer term benefit from them for the environment.

Projects funded last year included a hydroponics system for the horticulture garden at Trident High School, a seed library at Waihi Beach Primary School and new bike and scooter racks at Lynmore Primary School.

A second round of voting will be held by a youth panel in Youth Week (May 20-25). All Bay of Plenty people aged 12-24 years are encouraged to sign up to be part of this great initiative. 

Tauranga Girls' College student Namita Nitesh, who represented the 2023 SSRF Youth Panel, says the best part of the panel is looking through the applications and reading about the different projects from schools who have applied for funding. 

“I learned a lot about participatory budgeting from being on the panel, which was an excellent educational experience.” 

To cast your vote, head to www.participate.boprc.govt.nz/ssrf

The voting round is now open and will close on May 10.