The social needs of the Waimate community will be explored over the next three years.
The Waimate District Resource Trust has received a community development scheme grant from the Department of Internal Affairs.
The grant, which is $80,000 a year for three years, will allow the trust to employ a full-time project facilitator to look into the community's needs.
The trust applied for the grant as there was so much potential growth in the community and it needed to be established what social capacity the community had to cater for that growth, so it could have some say in the social development, trust member Matt Henderson said.
The Waimate community also had a high proportion of older people.
Many organisations and groups, especially social groups, had a "rich base" of volunteers but there were a limited number who could carry out the administration roles.
It was important to find out the state of the groups and how the situation could be improved, Mr Henderson said.
"It's a chance for the community to have some say in how it shapes its future," he said.
The position will be advertised in the next two weeks.
