Project Kent with Kent Reliance - Final Projects

kmfm has teamed up with Kent Reliance to launch ‘Project Kent’, an exciting hands-on community based project. Kent Reliance wants to help projects that are in need; whether it be a scout hut that needs repairing, a community garden that needs restoring or a soup kitchen that needs refurbishing, Kent Reliance want to get involved and help out. Kent Reliance are a bank who specialise in offering their customers savings accounts; with branches across the south east Kent Reliance ‘concentrates on offering award winning savings accounts’, providing their customers with the best deals. kmfm and Kent Reliance want to help make an impact within the local community. Both based within Kent, they want to give back to the community and what better way to do it than to have the public decide which projects are the most in need. Launched in the first week of July, nominations took place over 2 weeks with the process ending on Sunday 16 th July. During the week commencing Monday 17 th July the judging panel, consisting of the KM Media group, kmfm presenters and representatives from Kent Reliance, have gone through over 100 nominations to decipher who the finalist(s) were to be. The process involved visiting various nominations to view them first hand, take pictures and further inquire about their requirements and what works needed to be carried out. This allowed us to decipher which nominations we could realistically help leading to us deciding who our finalists were. After the publics’ overwhelming response to ‘Project Kent’ we are happy to announce that we have chosen our final projects!

Beltinge Day Nursery, Herne Bay, CT6 6TA Based in Herne Bay this day nursery is charity-run, catering for children aged 2-5 years. The nursery is positioned on the same grounds as Reculver Church of England Primary School with most children from the nursery progressing into the primary school. The nursery is open during term time and is always attempting to raise money, such as through summer fetes, to provide the nursery with new toys. The day nursery’s garden is in desperate need of some TLC to make it safer and more engaging for the children; the flooring comprises of half Astroturf, which has become worn out, and half tiled slabs, which have started to become a tripping hazard. The nursery can cater for children with mobility issues meaning that a safe even floor will benefit them tremendously. Alongside the flooring the garden in general needs a makeover, in need of a lick of paint and some plants to make it feel more vibrant. The garden is in constant use by the children who attend the nursery, most of it being covered by a temporary roof making it accessible throughout the year, meaning its redecoration would be a massive benefit. The garden will aim to create a safer play environment as well as being engaging and stimulating in order to encourage learning.

Farthing Corner Community Centre, Rainham, ME8 8RZ Based in Rainham, this community centre was built over 30 years ago by local residents. The charity- run community centre welcomes over 100 children and adults each week, housing various clubs ranging from dance classes to Rainbows. Unfortunately, due to changing needs, clubs have left the premises and gone elsewhere affecting the centres usage capabilities. Over time the centre has fallen into disrepair and is desperately in need of a makeover. The kitchen, used as a prepping area, is dated and needs to be refurbished to allow the space to be used more efficiently; the bathroom is old and start to become damp, needing to be updated to make it fresh and vibrant. The changing facilities are also cramped and in need of some structural alteration to make it open-planned and more usable by those who attend the centre. Updating the community centre would encourage new groups to use the area as well as welcome back old groups into the space; membership would also increase meaning the centre would be used and enjoyed by more people.

Keep listening to kmfm and watching our social media pages to find out about our final projects and how they get on.