27 August 1997

National Lottery Charities Board invests £17.5 million in learning projects and developing the voluntary sector in Scotland

The National Lottery Charities Board today awarded over £17.5 million to 435 charities and community groups in Scotland. The grants were made under the Board’s fourth grants programme entitled New opportunities and choices and Voluntary sector development and under the Small grants scheme.

The projects funded under the fourth grants programme will help people to have access to education and training, support children through after school clubs and re-train women who want to return to work. They will also offer learning opportunities through volunteering activities.

Among the larger awards are Lead Scotland receiving £436,345 to help disabled adults across Scotland to take part in education and volunteering opportunities and Aberdeen Young People’s Project Trust who receive £483,696 to help young people to start living independently. The National Deaf Children’s Society were awarded £151,876 to provide information and advice to parents of deaf children and Castlemilk Youth Complex, Glasgow, will use their grant of £161,085 to run a youth work and arts facility to develop training programmes for young people. Smaller awards include Campie After School Club in Musselburgh, East Lothian who receive a grant of £1,500 to provide educational and basic information technology facilities for children.

This is the first time that the Board has awarded grants under Voluntary sector development as a separate theme. 56 of the grants worth £5.7 million have been awarded to voluntary and community groups which support other voluntary organisations. Examples of these included CSV Environment in Glasgow which has received £188,732 to support community and voluntary groups who want to promote environmental awareness. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) have been awarded £182,890 to link all CVSs across Scotland via an intranet. There are also smaller projects such as the Orkney Counselling Centre Management Group who receive £34,151 to provide training and support to local voluntary groups.

Smaller groups are also benefiting today under the National Lottery Charities Board’s Small grants scheme. A total of 258 small community based groups share half a million pounds in the Board’s third hand out to small Scottish groups with incomes below £10,000.

Chair of the Scotland Committee awarding the grants, Garth Morrison, said today: ‘We feel that our work is making a significant contribution to the voluntary and community sector throughout Scotland. Today our grants include projects which help older people in our society, pre-school projects aimed at children, after school clubs supporting young people and schemes that help people with learning difficulties or physical disabilities.’