The future of Community Assets funding
Last year Big Lottery Fund Scotland asked the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) and Community Enterprise to carry out a review of our investment in community asset ownership and development, to help inform our future funding in this area.
Since 2001, over £95 million of our funding has been invested in over 400 projects throughout the length and breadth of the country – first through the original Scottish Land Fund, then through programmes such as Growing Community Assets.
Our main goal was to find out whether our support for the ownership and development of assets is an effective way to improve the strength and resilience of disadvantaged communities.
Additionally, it has been the Fund’s policy to only support communities wishing to own assets: we have not supported leasing. So we also asked the SCDC to investigate whether leasing or simply managing assets was equally as effective in helping communities tackle inequality.
Live to surf, surf to live
Tamara, 18, tells us how her confidence has blossomed since getting involved at the Wave Project during her stay at the Regional Eating Disorders Unit. The Wave Project is a National Lottery funded charity that transforms the lives of young people through surfing…
A thread – a thread of hope, a thread of dreams and a thread of reality.
That’s the way I would describe the Wave Project. In dark hours, it was a thread of hope to hold onto. A thread that grew into a strong, safe and reliant rope. To pick yourself up, push yourself and ride an amazing wave takes courage and strength, and help from others. And that’s exactly what the Wave Project gave me – courage, strength and help from amazing people!
Time seemed to slow on the day of my first Wave Project session – that day in hospital seemed even more boring than normal. The hours dragged on until finally it was time to go. I’m happy to say that the wait was worth it, as it was as amazing as I had anticipated. The weeks went on and each session seemed somehow to be even better than the last. I was catching more waves and getting more confident each week.
From “scary funder” to valued partner
Andrew & Angela
In this guest blog Angela Beardsley, Founder and Executive Director of Resonate Arts House, talks about how she came to value the Big Lottery Fund as a partner after initially viewing the process of applying for funding with some trepidation…
It was time. The Chair of the annual ACOSVO Trustee Week event was beginning to introduce the next speaker – me.
I approached the lectern and the faces of hundreds of people in the room swam in front of my vision. It was the week of my mum’s funeral and I was shaking with nerves. I’m not sure what I said, but when I finished speaking people clapped and I made my way back to my seat.
At the break Andrew Lindsay from the Big Lottery Fund introduced himself to me. His enthusiasm was infectious and he said he found it amazing that Resonate Arts House was doing such fantastic work with pretty much no full-time employees or external funding.
It was at this point that Andrew suggested applying to the Big Lottery Fund for a Community-Led grant of £10,000 – £150,000. That was a huge amount of money and I expressed my fear of Resonate getting “caught” in a funding loop.
Andrew was very supportive and seemed to understand my need for our community to be at the heart of our organisation, and suggested we discuss the opportunities further at a later date.
Success rates – summer 2017 update
When an organisation applies to us, one of the most common questions is “how likely are we to receive funding?” There can be lots of factors that determine this with decisions made on a case-by-case basis. To give a general indicator though of what the chances might be of receiving a grant, we have been providing our success rates.
Here is our latest:
10 National Lottery funded summer activities
National Lottery players help to fund plenty of attractions and local projects throughout Scotland that not only improve the well-being of peoples and communities where they are located, but are also great places for you and your family to visit during the summer holidays. To save you some homework, I’ve compiled a list of 10 of these attractions you can visit this summer.
1. Put the pedal to the metal at Free Wheel North’s cycle centre
freewheelnorth.org.uk
Free Wheel North is a charity that teaches people of all ages to cycle in order to create a fairer, healthier society. Members of the public of all abilities are welcome to visit the cycling centre in Glasgow Green and try out a range of different bikes, including trikes, hand-crank cycles and tandems.
