WIREDGOV

Across Scotland, 103 community groups have yesterday shared National Lottery funding worth £739,234.  Find out where funding has gone in your area by going to:

A full list of awards is available here

A community fashion show in Selkirk, a very special skating competition in Glasgow for disabled people and a residential course for aspiring young musicians are amongst the latest projects to benefit from Awards for All Scotland.

Awards for All Scotland gives out grants of between £500 and £10,000 to projects that bring communities together to enjoy a range of activities.

Based in Coatbridge, Inclusive Skating provides a range of opportunities for skaters who have a range of physical or mental impairments to participate in the sport and take part in competitions and events.  Their award of £10,000 means they will be able to organise a competition at Braehead Curling Rink in Glasgow in April next year. 

Margarita Sweeney-Baird, Founder of Inclusive Skating, commented: “2015 will see the third Inclusive Skating event in Great Britain, which has only been made possible thanks to the funding from Awards for All. It has also enabled us to extend the scope of the event, opening up the competition to some of the most seriously impaired athletes. The system we have in place is transformational for disability sport, allowing able and disabled bodied skaters to compete in the same events.

“We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery for allowing us to continue to host this international competition in Figure Skating, Solo Ice Dance and Speed Skating, which provides a focal point within the inclusive skating calendar”.

Forget Paris, Milan or London, the fashion show to be seen at this year will take place in in the Scottish Borders thanks to
an award of £7,323 to Selkirk High School.  The school will stage a community fashion show and 5^th and 6^th year the chance to learn about all aspects of fashion design and stage production, as well as visiting London to learn about the industry.  Volunteers will be recruited from the local community to help run the show in a variety of roles from lighting to sound. 

Educational consultant, Clair Hood, said, “The Creative Fashion course allows secondary school students of all academic abilities the chance to work together in a productive, supportive environment. The money from Awards for All will allow us to add to the limited sound and lighting equipment already in the school which will help us to stage our fashion show.  We are taking pupils from the course to London in December and we’ve arranged a visit to Vivienne Westwood’s studio as well as Central St Martin’s college of Art and Design.

Twenty five young musicians from Harris and Lewis in the Western Isles will get the chance to learn from the best thanks to an award of £10,000 to Comhairlie nan Eilean Siar – Education and Children’s Service.  The young people will be able to attend a short residential course with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in Glasgow learning from some of the most talented professional young musicians in the country.   Once the course has finished the young people will perform alongside their mentors in a final showcase event. 

An Awards for All spokesperson, said: “Today’s awards will make a big difference to communities the length and breadth of Scotland.  Awards for All helps groups do things they would otherwise be unable to do, and for relatively small amounts of money.  This latest round of grants showcases the range of projects we fund , all of which are putting something back into their communities.”

Awards for All Scotland is a partnership by sportscotland and Big Lottery Fund. The programme re-opened to applications on 4 August with a new and improved simpler application form. Groups can download this form herewww.biglotteryfund.org.uk/awardsforallscotland.

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

Notes to editors

• Awards for All is a joint awards programme from the Big Lottery Fund and sportscotland.
• Awards for All makes grants to help people take part in arts, sport, social, environmental, health related, educational and other community activities.
• Awards for All re-opened to applications on 4 August with a simpler applications process and a renewed focus on funding smaller organisations with an annual turnover of less than £250k (except for schools)