- Area:
- Scotland
- Release date:
- 9 8 2012
As the biggest sporting event of the year draws to a close young people in many parts of Scotland are keeping the momentum going with a range of new sports and recreational activities funded through the Young Start programme.
Training young people to become swimming coaches, launching a new Floating Youth Club and providing sporting activities for children with additional support needs are amongst 12 projects today sharing in Young Start grants totalling £468,974.
Young Start, run by the Big Lottery Fund, aims to help young Scots aged 8 to 24 reach their full potential through a range of fun, educational and employability projects. It awards funding from dormant bank and building society accounts that have seen no customer-initiated activity for at least 15 years.
Announcing today’sawardsBig Lottery Fund Scotland Director, Jackie Killeen said:“Young Start can fund a range of activities that help young people who are most in need to get off to a flying start in life. I am delighted to see that today’s awards will support many young people to become healthier and more active from an early age through a variety of outdoor sports and play activities. But more than that these activities will also provide young people with important life skills such as teamwork and problem solving skills that will stand them in good stead when they go onto future education, training or employment.”
The Scottish Amateur Swimming Asssociation Ltd will train young people aged 15 to 24 from disadvantaged communities in West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Dundee to become swimming teachers and/or lifeguards, thanks to an award of £50,000. The Swim 4 Change project, which aims to improve the future employment prospects of young people while improving their health and fitness, will provide young people with recognised qualifications at the end of the course. The project will also work with primary school children to teach them to swim with latest statistics showing that 40% of primary school pupils leave for high school unable to swim.
An innovative idea to launch a Floating Youth Club has been backed with a Young Start award of £41,816. Strengthening Communities for Race Equality Scotland – known as SCOREscotland – will set up a youth club on a barge on canals in and around Wester Hailes in Edinburgh.
Aiming to reach around 100 young people aged 8 to 18, the project will primarily target those from black and ethnic minority communities but will be open to all young people in the area. Activities will include canoeing, kayaking, raft building, barging and mountain biking. The grant will also be used to hire a unit on dry land which will provide a dry base camp, in which to gather and get changed.
Young people with additional support needs will be enjoying a range of Paralympic sports and play activities, thanks to an award of £49,722. Play Alloa will use the award to run evening and day classes that will build the confidence and skills of young people aged 12 to 24 in sports and activities that they themselves choose. The project will also provide other activities such as arts classes and cooking that will develop their personal and social skills.
In the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Crossroads Youth And Community Association will use its award of £22,376 to provide young people aged 11 to 18 years with the opportunity to participate in a range of out of school hours activities including cookery sessions, singing and fashion design, first aid, health and safety and participation in the Duke of Edinburgh award programme focussing on outdoor adventure pursuits.
A full list of all Young Start awards made today
- 782KB
Further Information
For more details contact the Big Lottery Fund Press Scotland Office
0141 242 1458
BIG advice line: 0300 123 7110 Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Notes to Editors
- Dormant accounts are defined in the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 as those which have seen no customer-initiated activity for at least 15 years.
- In September 2011 the Scottish Government formally issued instructions to the Big Lottery Fund to distribute dormant accounts funding for the benefit of Scotland’s voluntary and community sector.
- The Reclaim Fund Ltd. (RFL), which was established in March 2011 to receive and invest dormant account balances across the UK, transferred the first tranche of monies from dormant bank and building society accounts to BIG on 2 August 2011. Scotland will receive an 8.4% share of the total funds to be distributed.
- The Distribution of Dormant Account Money (Apportionment) Order 2011 prescribes that Scotland will receive 8.4% of the dormant accounts money to be made available for distribution by the Big Lottery Fund under the 2008 Act. The Big Lottery Fund has confirmed a grants budget of £3.7m to 31 March 2012 and an indicative budget of £5.2m for 2012/13. This gives an estimated total grants budget of £8.9m to 31 March 2013. It should be noted that the 2012/13 figure is a median projection and may go down or up.
- The Big Lottery Fund 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 It also uses its expertise in grant-giving to distribute non-Lottery funding. Full details of the BIG funded programmes and grant awards in Scotland are available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/scotland
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