29 September 2000

New services for Scotland!

Fifty grants worth £5.6 million are announced by the National Lottery Charities Board today, amongst them grants which will establish brand new services for the whole of Scotland.

The Scottish Human Rights Trust will open a help line and training service on the Human Rights Act which is force in Scotland and will come into force in England in October. Any group or voluntary organisation which provides a service to the public falls within the provision of the Act and will be able to access advice directly through the new help line. A new range of publications and a programme of seminars will explain the implications of the Act.

People with haemophilia in Scotland will have dedicated full-time support for the first time and a range of services tailored to their needs. A grant to the Haemophilia Society will fund a development worker to provide support for sufferers, their families and carers through local patient information evenings and a better network of statutory, voluntary organisations and treatment centres.

A new national training unit is to be created by Scottish Marriage Care and will provide accredited training for volunteer marriage guidance counsellors. This grant will furnish, equip and staff the training unit, enabling the organisation to expand the marriage and relationship counselling service it provides throughout Scotland. The grant is announced as Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace opens the organisation's first national office in Waterloo Street, Glasgow.

The National Lottery Charities Board makes grants to voluntary and community organisations working to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged people. The grants announced today will strengthen the work of organisations throughout the country - from Orkney where three organisations receive more than £400,000 to provide community facilities and play schemes, to the Borders where volunteers in the Borders Forest Trust will use a grant of £82,442 to bring volunteers into a programme of woodland restoration.

With a total of £174 million awarded in Scotland since it began making grants in 1995, the Charities Board is the biggest independent funder of voluntary activity. Further information about current grants programmes can be obtained by phoning 0870 2402391.

For further information and arrangements to interview successful applicants, contact Kay Caldwell or Kirsty Mullan on 0131 221 7100 or 0468 583441.

Note to editors:

A complete list of grants announced today is attached. Please refer to this for grants in your area, project summaries and amounts awarded.