£3.9M Lottery funding awarded to community support groups
Six groups which help to support vulnerable people across the country are to share £3.9 million of lottery funding.
Six groups which help to support vulnerable people across the country are to share £3.9 million of lottery funding.
The Big Lottery Fund Scotland awards will benefit projects which provide support to communities and families in rural and socially isolated areas.
Fullarton Community Association in North Ayrshire is the biggest beneficiary, being given £1.12 million to build a new community hub on the site of the existing site.
Friockheim Community Hub in Angus is using its £1.07 million award to create FriockHub'', which will offer facilities including multi-purpose meeting spaces, a lunch club, a fitness suite and mother-and-toddler facilities.
FriockHub chairman Dougie Pond said: We are delighted to have been offered a Big Lottery Scotland grant which will allow us to develop a facility in the heart of the village offering many activities and spaces to support, sustain and develop Friockheim and its rural surroundings.''
Citizens Advice Scotland will receive an award of £562,271 to fund its Advice in Mind project in North and South Lanarkshire.
The project aims to help those living with mental health issues who are vulnerable to financial hardship.
David Brownlee, head of bureau services at Citizens Advice Scotland, said: Our service will work with the NHS to support people with their problems in times of crisis, and also build their confidence for the future.
This Advice in Mind project will be of real benefit to people in Lanarkshire and we are now looking to develop similar services elsewhere in Scotland.''
The Argyll and Bute Third Sector Interface 1000 Voices'' project - which has been given £502,151 - will provide assistance to those suffering rural isolation, loneliness and lack of mobility.
Edinburgh-based Living Memory Association has been awarded £383,229 for its Little Shop of Memory'' project, which helps to reduce social isolation of older people.
A total of £259,101 is being made available for a project by the Citadel Youth Centre in Edinburgh which offers a holistic community-based support for families and children aged 5-12 deemed as being at risk at home, school, or in the community.
Meanwhile, two historic parks on either side of the country are set for significant improvement work thanks to players of the National Lottery.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded grants totalling £6.1 million to Edinburgh's Saughton Park and Hermitage Park in Helensburgh. Both parks are used regularly by walkers, joggers and families.
Saughton Park, which lies near the Water of Leith walkway, is to receive a grant of £3,799,100. Hermitage Park, the only urban park in Argyll & Bute, gets £2,333,300.
HLF said its grants will transform both, reinstating plants and trees, repairing paths, restoring historic features and introducing new facilities.
The body said it has, to date, helped turn around the fortunes of 45 parks in Scotland with an investment of more than £58 million.
Lucy Casot, head of the HLF in Scotland, said: Parks, and the historic features in them, are a wonderful legacy from our ancestors.
They are enjoyed by all ages and are often a community's only green space in which to relax away from the pressures of daily life.
Using funds raised through the National Lottery, HLF is able to protect and transform these precious places helping make a difference to the quality of life for millions of Scots.''