The Reaching New Scots Fund was a positive step towards inclusivity, and another shining example of Participatory Grant-making in action at the Fund.
If you’re new to Participatory Grant-making, you can read our introductory blog in our Participatory Grant-making blog series: What Is PGM?
This particular PGM pilot project was run in partnership with the Scottish Refugee Council and The National Lottery Community Fund in Scotland. It aimed to empower refugee communities by placing the decision-making power directly into their hands.
What is the Reaching New Scots Fund?
The Reaching New Scots Fund was designed to provide financial support to projects that enhance integration, community-building, and empowerment for refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland.
Over £700,000 of National Lottery funding was awarded to grassroot groups and organisations that were refugee led or provided support for people seeking safety in Scotland.
Unlike conventional grant-making processes where external organisations determined project funding, the Reaching New Scots Fund adopted a participatory approach, giving refugee communities an active voice in selecting the initiatives they believe will have the greatest impact on their lives.
How Did it Work?
The Scottish Refugee Council and the Fund adopted a Representative Participation model, where the panel was made up of community members, alongside funders, grant-makers and other experts.
The participatory grant-making project then involved several steps:
1. Organisations and community groups could then propose projects that aligned with our funding objectives. The projects aimed to foster integration, improve well-being and encourage empowerment within the refugee community.
2. The funding panel members individually scored their allocated applications and made recommendations to either fund or not to fund.
3. The panel members then met in pairs to compare their recommendations and scores, providing feedback on the applications.
4. Funding pairs then met with allocated applicants for a 30 minute interview either online or in person.
5. The entire panel then met up, shared summaries and recommendations for funding and applications will be ranked by their score.
Ronnie’s Story: A Voice of Empowerment
Ronnie Tagwireyi was one of the volunteers on the Reaching New Scots Fund project and is part of the Scottish Refugee Council’s Refugee Advisory Group.
He has been in the asylum system for 8 years, and currently lives in Glasgow.
Ronnie, a passionate advocate for refugee and asylum seeker rights, shared his thoughts on the Reaching New Scots Fund:
“The Reaching New Scots Fund project still blows my mind, and this is a couple of months after we finished it.
“Funding is usually top down, it’s never been done by people who are refugees and asylum seekers themselves. So it was great when the applications went out, and then they came in and there was 100-something applications. It was an overwhelming response.
“Hopefully other funders can look at this participatory grant-making process as something good from start to finish, and see that people with lived experience should be involved at every stage of the funding process. Thanks too to the National Lottery Community Fund, I’m really glad I was a part of it.”
The Reaching New Scots Fund stands as a shining example of how Participatory Grant-making can empower marginalized communities and encourage more inclusive funding processes.
As a result of the Reaching New Scots Fund, 34 organisations were awarded funding to carry out projects that support New Scots Integration. 13 of those organisations had not previously received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.
Overall, the Reaching New Scots project was a great first step towards putting communities at the heart of funding decision-making. By embedding participative grant practises in decision making, we can make it a true reflection of community need.
Interested in learning more about PGM?
If you want to learn more about our work and Participatory Grant-making, have a read of our other blogs in the series:
The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland Blog 