Business support for grant holders
Big Lottery Fund Scotland recently partnered with the Social Investment Business (SIB) to provide business support to our grant holders. In this guest blog post, SIB’s Mary Jarvie talks us through how she was able to assist one of our current grant holders, the Belville Community Garden Trust (BCGT)…
Last November I met with Janet from Belville Community Garden Trust to carry out a financial health check. Their organisation was established in 2014 by local people to bring the community together in a deprived area in the east end of Greenock. Its focus is on breaking down barriers, improving community relations, building pride in the local environment, and improving health and wellbeing – primarily through gardening, horticulture and healthy eating.
I met Janet at their community garden to talk through a wide range of issues including governance, partnerships, aspirations for the future, challenges and successes. To me it was clear that the organisation was destined for an exciting future and that Janet was keen to ensure its growth would be built on sound financial governance.
Looking for up to £10K?
Are you looking for up to £10,000 in National Lottery funding to help you get a great idea moving? Then look no further. National Lottery Awards for All Scotland is here and if you are looking for as little as £300 or as much as £10,000 for a great community based project then it is for you.
If it sounds familiar then that is because National Lottery Awards For All Scotland is the new name for Awards For All Scotland. We’re still here to support great community, arts and sports projects across the country, but we haven’t just changed our name…
- We have listened to you and we have a new shorter and more straightforward form to fill in, and
- If you’re successful you will get your money more quickly than before.
National Lottery Awards For All Scotland is still supporting the same types of projects that we did before and we hope that by making the application process shorter and more straightforward it will encourage smaller organisations, that perhaps didn’t see this as funding for them before, to apply.
Our new early action fund, which launched earlier this month, aims to put people and partnerships at the heart of lasting system change. So far, in previous early action blogs, we have touched upon two of the three areas that we want this funding to help address. In this third and final blog post, our Policy and Learning Adviser, Deborah Hay, shares her thoughts behind the third area for investment…Children, Young People and Families….
Last week, I attended an end of term celebration event at my daughter’s school. The head boy and girl, after consulting with their peers, had decided to make mental health their charity theme for the year. They talked passionately about how important an issue poor mental health was for the young people they knew and how much they wanted to see more of the right kind of support in place.
Earlier this year, a grant holder told me that their local authority was struggling to manage Child and Adolescent Mental Health waiting lists (CAMHs) with hundreds of youngsters waiting to be seen. Her experience suggested that many of those youngsters wouldn’t need specialist psychiatric help and that after a formal assessment some months or even years from now, would probably be referred to community based support services – services which may or may not be available. Her view was that it would be faster and a better use of resources not to wait for that referral but instead to hold several hundred children’s planning meetings, to discuss all the needs of each of those youngsters in turn (education, health, friendships, family and relationships) and draw on or commission the right local support. But despite Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), she couldn’t see a mechanism locally to push through that change of emphasis – she was faced with a ‘system’ that had its own rules and momentum.
Who will you vote for in The National Lottery Awards?
Votes are now open for this year’s National Lottery Awards, the search for the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects. Six projects in Scotland, which have received either Big Lottery Fund or National Lottery Awards for All funding, have beaten off stiff competition from more than 1,300 organisations to reach the public voting stage, which is open until midnight on 27 July 2017.
The winners of the seven award categories will each get a £5,000 cash prize to spend on their project, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and attendance at a star-studded glittering Awards ceremony to be broadcast on BBC One in September.
Thanks to National Lottery players, all six shortlisted projects are making a huge difference in their communities, but who will you vote for?
Bravehound, competing in the Best Voluntary/Charity Project category, is a charity that matches dogs with veterans, helping them return to civilian life, particularly supporting those with post-traumatic stress disorder. Vote for Bravehound.
Social Bite, also up for a Best Voluntary/Charity Project award, has outlets in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. It’s a sandwich shop with a difference – every penny it makes in profit is ploughed back into supporting homeless people and tackling social problems. Vote for Social Bite.
Vintage Vibes, also in the running for a Best Voluntary/Charity Project category, is based in Edinburgh and aims to create genuine, lasting relationships between lonely over-60s and volunteers through creating one to one friendships. Vote for Vintage Vibes.
Let’s hear it for the girls
National Lottery funding is helping to change thousands of lives today, empowering people and communities to embrace a brighter future as 50 groups across the country receive a cash boost of over £9.6m .
That’s certainly the case for Glasgow based social enterprise, MsMissMrs. Project Manager, Sylvia Douglas, explains the difference that their first Big Lottery Fund award will make to the confidence of young women across the city.
Sylvia Douglas
“It’s not easy being a woman in 2017. While society would have us believe that today’s women have made major steps in equality, we at MsMissMrs know this isn’t entirely true. There is still a great deal of work to be done, as women and are challenged by major social, economic and health inequalities. That’s where we come in! With a no-holds-barred attitude, MsMissMrs seeks to empower these women, providing them with impactful resources to spark positive change, and a solid foundation for building a happier relationship with themselves.
“Founded in 2013, we are a social enterprise based in Glasgow set up to address the major health and wellbeing inequalities facing women and girls who have travelled a difficult journey. We’re passionate about empowerment, having created long-term sustainable change with over 200 women and girls so far. Thanks to our empowerment pants and private investment, our year started with the opening of a new community hub, where we offer a space for women and girls from all over Glasgow to connect with each other and themselves.
