£1.5m lottery windfall for Edinburgh good causes

Area:

Scotland

Programme:

Investing In Communities

Release date:

1 3 2007

The grants will come from BIG’s Supporting 21st Century Life investment area that supports people and communities to deal with the pace of change, enjoy positive relationships, improve quality of life and establish connections.

The Children and Families Department of City of Edinburgh Council has been awarded £929,690 for its Creating Confident Kids project, which will help 20 primary schools in Edinburgh to develop and deliver an out-of-school programme that will promote emotional health, communication and social skills for youngsters.

Councillor Andrew Burns, Executive Member for Children and Families, The City of Edinburgh Council, said: "This grant is great news. It will enable us to further develop and promote our emotional well being work including personal and professional development for staff, out of school hours activities for children, personal development work with parents/carers and community based and voluntary sector projects.  The grant will also be used to comprehensively evaluate work carried out as well as hosting an annual emotional well-being conference to share achievements and promote the latest research in this area. Any materials, programme or training that is developed will draw on the expertise and knowledge of staff already working in the field and representatives from voluntary organisations. Topics that are likely to be covered include attachment, resilience, optimism, appreciative enquiry, emotional literacy and brain development."

Edinburgh Development Group has been awarded £220,412 for its Supporting Older Families project that will raise the self-esteem of older families caring for an adult with learning difficulties and provide them with improved access to information, advice and support. The grant will fund the new posts of full-time project leader and a part-time project assistant.

Group Chairperson Susan Hunter said: “People with learning difficulties are living longer and many older people live with family carers. It’s estimated that about a third of people with learning difficulties live with carers aged 70 or over, some with very limited support.  This funding recognises the contribution that carers make to society. It will allow us to work with other agencies to support and advise older families; to help them think of their own wellbeing; to look at how they can deal with emergencies; and to plan for the future, together with the person they are caring for. We shall look too at the needs and concerns of older people with disabilities who have often benefited less from service innovation and change than younger people.”

Re-Union Canal Boats Ltd has been awarded £148,449 for its Big Boat Build project that will develop participants’ practical and life skills, improve volunteering opportunities and engage people. The grant will help buy and refurbish a boat that will moor and sail on the Union Canal. Volunteers will help run activities on the boat, such as training sessions, staff meetings or simple outings, for a wide range of community groups.

Barbara Lyon from Re-Union Canal Boats said: “This summer’s Big Boat Build will be an event that captures the imagination of the communities living along Edinburgh’s Union Canal. It’s a fantastic opportunity to bring people together to share in the social and cultural life of the canal, to develop practical and social skills and to learn from one another whilst building a remarkable asset for the community.”

Finally, Alzheimer Scotland Action On Dementia has been awarded £200,000 for its Polish and Ukrainian Support Service. The project will support and enable members of the Polish, Ukrainian and Italian communities in Edinburgh and the Lothians to become healthier, better informed and positively engaged in community life. It will include one-to-one support, day opportunity programmes, community social events, information and signposting and will develop a volunteer base to work with these communities.

For more information regarding this release contact George Anderson at:Big Lottery Fund Press Office (Scotland): 0141 242 1415

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project. The largest of the Lottery good cause distributors, BIG has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.
• UK-wide, the Big Lottery Fund will distribute through its new programmes and allocations funding worth over £2.6bn between now and April 2009.  Updated information on the Big lottery Fund’s new programmes is available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/publications.htm
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £19.5 billion has now been raised and more than 250,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

SCOTLAND

The Big Lottery Fund has £257 million to invest in Scotland’s communities before 2009 as follows:

• £231 million for the Fund’s Unified Investment Plan (Investing in Communities)*
• £20 million for the Young People’s Fund
• £24 million for Awards for All (until 2006)

The Fund’s future funding plans are detailed in the manifesto ‘Investing in Communities'.

*Investing in Communities is the Big Lottery Fund Scotland’s new funding portfolio, which consists of four investment areas: Growing Community Assets, to help communities obtain, improve, develop, manage, sustain and protect assets that will help them become stronger and more sustainable; Life Transitions to support people at times of change in their lives – at different life stages and in different circumstances; Supporting 21st Century Life to provide support to people and communities to deal with the pace of change, enjoy positive relationships, improve quality of life, and establish connections across 21st century society; Dynamic and Inclusive Communities (DINC) to fund improvements to the capacity and infrastructure of national, intermediary or second tier organisations, to allow communities to engage in civic society and influence civic processes so that they can build strong and more inclusive local communities.

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