The municipality of Assen is giving the Stichting Leergeld extra subsidy for this year. The organization that supports children from families with money problems will receive an additional 189,000 euros. There are many more requests for help coming in from Assen.
With the extra money, the subsidy amount for this year for the Stichting Leergeld will almost double. More than 222,000 euros had initially been allocated for 2023. Thanks to the extra subsidy, the total amount now amounts to more than 411,000 euros.
Stichting Leergeld implements the Child Package for the municipality of Assen. This means that parents with money problems can turn to the foundation for financial help with, for example, the purchase of school supplies, a laptop, school trips, a bicycle, swimming lessons, sports, music lessons or a birthday package.
The Leergeld Foundation works together with the Youth Fund Sport & Culture, the National Fund for Children’s Aid and the Jarige Job Foundation. The aim is for children aged 0 to 21 to have the same opportunities as their peers thanks to the Child Package, despite financial worries at home.
Last year it became clear in Assen that more and more families were getting into financial problems as a result of high energy prices and inflation. “Many new parents have therefore asked for help for their children,” writes the council of B and W van Assen in a letter to the city council.
Last year, 3,017 requests for help were received, while in 2021 that was still 1,810. As a result, the expenditure for the granted applications increased by forty percent. Last year, the Leergeld Foundation used all reserves to finance the additional applications.
There are now no more reserves to absorb the increase that will continue this year. That is why Assen is now coming up with the extra subsidy amount. “This allows the Stichting Leergeld to support as many children as possible and to allow them to fully participate in society,” said the college. The municipality of Assen will continue to discuss the subsidy amount for 2024 with the organization and it will be examined how the number of applications will continue.
In 2020, the number of applications from Stichting Leergeld Noord-Drenthe fell to 1012 schoolchildren. The decrease was mainly due to the corona crisis, which caused schools to close and school trips, excursions and school camps to be cancelled. However, the number of requests for bicycles, laptops and clothing increased. At the time, Stichting Leergeld already estimated that the number of applications would rise again when the corona crisis was over.