- Area:
- Scotland
- Release date:
- 18 10 2012
Over £30,000 will be invested in giving Scotland’s children a better start in life thanks to the grants made today by the Communities and Families Fund - a joint venture from the Big Lottery Fund and the Scottish Government.
Five groups will receive funding today totalling £31,353 from the £6 million Communities and Families Fund, launched in May 2012. The multi-million fund aims to give groups working with children of eight years and under a vital helping hand. Groups can apply for funding from £250 to £10,000.
Jackie Killeen, Director, Big Lottery Fund Scotland, said: “Today’s grants from the Communities and Families Fund will help groups provide a range of skills from computing to cooking to gardening. Parents will be given the support and advice they need to make informed choices and so create a better future for themselves and their young children.”
“With almost £6 million still to give out we want to hear from projects that will benefit parents and young children, and give them a good start in life. If you’re a mother and toddler group, a crèche, community nursery or playgroup visit our website at http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/scotland or call us to find out more on 0300 123 7110.”
Children attending Humpty Dumpty Early Years Care in Blairgowrie, Perthshire will benefit from intensive play sessions thanks to today’s grant of £6,048. Over a three month period up to six children, aged between two and three, will have access to play and early learning development which their parents are unable to help them with. The children will be helped with basic skills such as toileting and communication. Their parents will be involved as much as possible in the process and be given as much help and advice as they require, as well as contact with other supportive organisations.
Parents in Pilton will receive bite sized learning while their young children are looked after in a crèche. A grant of £5,295 awarded to the Children & Families Department of Edinburgh Council means they can run this programme for up to a year. While the children attend a crèche at Pirniehall and St David’s Nursery, their parents will be transported to several colleges and schools where they will be taught parenting and wellbeing skills. Learning about their child’s development and being shown how the nursery stimulates knowledge will help the parents get their children ready for school education. The children will be assessed before and after the project to see how their literacy, numeracy skills and wellbeing have improved.
Parents struggling to raise their children will be able to get help from Friends of Cornton Nursery, in Stirling. New weekly drop-in sessions with guest speakers, a weekly fruit barra, cookery classes and educational activities will take place thanks to today’s grant of £6,450. Friends of Cornton Nursery is a new project giving support and advice to parents of young children struggling to cope on their own. The project will run information sessions on welfare reform, understanding your toddler, play at home, and baby massage. These activities will be available to the wider community so parents and young children from different backgrounds will come together. The parents will learn new skills and the children will get the chance to play and socialise in mixed groups.
Learning computer skills together is on offer for families in Caldercruix, near Airdrie. A grant of £7,705 means that Caldercruix Youth & Community Development Project can run a beginners class and interactive play course where parents and their young children can learn together. The computer course will give parents the expertise to help their children with homework, computer activities, and to able to safeguard them from dangerous websites. The interactive play activities will include messy arts and crafts, storytelling and fitness, planting vegetables and cooking. Classes will run for a year and be open to all parents with young children.
Five to eight year olds in Dundee have the chance to explore their creative side with a new arts and crafts class. Today’s grant of £5,855 will fund two experienced craft workers who’ll run the Tuesday night class for a year. Ormiston, Inveresk and Salton Residents Association run youth club sessions twice a week which are very popular and a vital part of the community. Run mostly by volunteers, the new sessional artists will help both children and volunteers with creative ideas, practical skills and structured arts activities.
The Communities and Families Fund will run over the next three years with £4.5 million from The Scottish Government and £1.5 million from the largest of the National Lottery Good Cause distributors, the Big Lottery Fund. To find out more visit
http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_communities_and_families_fund, or phone 0300 123 7110.
The Scottish Government’s Early Years Taskforce published its Shared Vision and Priorities in March 2012. This paper highlights what needs to be done to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children and the ways families and communities can help improve these outcomes and how services can best be targeted to support them. The Communities and Families Fund is helping to take this work forward.
Further information
For more details contact Frances Chisholm, Press Team Scotland, 0141 242 1458
BIG advice line: 0300 123 7110 or Textphone: 0845 6021 659
For more information about the Big Lottery Fund Scotland our programmes and grant awards go to www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/scotland
You can follow us on Twitter @BIGSCOTLAND or like us on Facebook - we are Big Lottery Fund Scotland
Notes to Editors
- The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 46% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
- BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. BIG was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
- The Early Years Taskforce was set up in November 2011 to provide strategic leadership for the Early Years Change Programme and co-ordinate policy across Government and the wider public sector to ensure that Early Years spending is prioritised by the whole public sector.
- Scottish Government funding will be drawn from the wider £270 million Early Years Change Fund, which includes a Scottish Government contribution of £50 million over the nextfour years.
- The Scotland Committee, led by Chair Maureen McGinn, has been making Big Lottery Fund decisions on Scottish projects since March 2007. As well as taking devolved decisions on Lottery spending, the Committee has and will continue to play a strategic role in the future direction of BIG in Scotland.
- The Big Lottery Fund is funding Scotland’s communities through the Investing in Communities portfolio as well as the small grants schemes Awards for All, 2014 Communities and the Communities and Families Fund.
Tags