Children across the capital are set to take part in a unique arts project with a focus on understanding bullying thanks to an award of £50,000 from Young Start. The project, which will be run by The Children’s Parliament, is one of seven across Scotland sharing in £308,283 announced yesterday (SEPTEMBER 22).

The Children’s Parliament Investigates project will use it’s award of £50,000 run an arts programme exploring the reasons behind bullying, the different forms it can take and how it impacts on life in and out of school. Using animation, photography, drama and more children from four schools in Edinburgh will confront this difficult and controversial issue head on.

Co-Director, Colin Morrison, said, “We are delighted at our success in receiving Young Start support for our work with children.  This award reflects our core interests in building children’s confidence and skills, improving wellbeing and connecting the generations so that they can work together on matters like bullying.

“We’re looking forward to running a project that brings a deeper understanding of the impact of bullying and we will use the children’s energy and care for others to show how much more we can achieve to create school, home and community environments where children can flourish.”

In the Outer Hebrides budding young film-makers will now have a chance to hone their creative talents and showcase their work to a wider audience thanks to yesterday’s award of £49,556 to the South Uist Youth Development Group.

The island based project will offer equipment and technical training in such crafts as film production and editing the group for young people aged 11 to 18 years-old on different projects from film-making, intergenerational work recording audio and stories from older members of the community through to film nights where they will be encouraged to recreate a cinema experience for the islanders.

Youth Work Organiser Paul Steele, said, “We are delighted to receive this award which builds on our previous project to give young people in the islands the opportunity to learn something exciting and new in multimedia production and this money allows us to continue and expand our work.

“Thanks to funding from Young Start the two of the films produced by the youngsters have won national awards we hope to build on this success. Living on a remote island can have its disadvantages and this grant means that our young people can experience and enjoy activities that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to and help build confidence and skills for the future.”

http://filmg.co.uk/en/films/1106/

Marc Lindsay, 14, has been involved with the project for 2 years. He said, ‘I really enjoyed the film making activities last time around. I enjoyed working with the camera, editing and the technical side of film-making. I am now more confident using the equipment and I can help other people. It’s really opened my eyes to the possibility of a career in film or television.”

Run by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland, Young Start awards money from dormant bank and building society accounts to support a range of projects that help young people aged eight to 24 reach their full potential. 

Chair of Big Lottery Fund Scotland, Maureen McGinn, said yesterday, “Young Start helps ensure that Scotland’s next generation has the best possible start in life and all of these successful projects share that ambition.

“All seven projects sharing funding today will make a huge difference by helping children and young people around the country gain the abilities, skills and confidence to embrace a positive and healthy future.”

The other five projects that received funding from Young Start yesterday were:- 

Girvan Youth Trust
South Ayrshire
£50,000
This project will create a structured volunteering programme for young people and set up a range of partnerships with youth workers and teachers

The Meeting Place
Highland 
£49,500
This IT project, based in Nairn, will support young people to mentor other young people as well as adults with learning disabilities.

Partick Thistle Charitable Trust 
Glasgow
£49,500
This project will allow the group to continue to deliver their sports and development for young people who have learning difficulties

Tribe Porty CIC
Edinburgh
£49,330
This project will run an intergenerational theatre workshop and performance project for primary school children and older people in the East of Edinburgh and the Lothians.

The Touring Network (Highlands & Island) Ltd 
£10,000
This project, based in Inverness, will run a programme which will develop young people as arts leaders and promoters to co-ordinate a small tour of dance, theatre and music performances across the Highlands and Islands.

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 0141 242 1451
Website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Twitter: @BIGScotland #biglottery
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFundScotland

 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 estimated grants budget for 2014/15 is £4.8m. It should be noted that this figure is a median projection and may go up or down.
• The 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 its inception in 2004 it has awarded close to £6bn.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £34 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.