Lottery funding for Edinburgh 2014 games celebrations
4 Jun 2014 11:53 AM
With the 2014
Commonwealth Games just around the corner, community groups from Edinburgh and
the Lothians are gearing up for their own Games inspired events thanks to
National Lottery funding.
265 groups from across Scotland
are sharing in grants of up to £10,000 from the Celebrate and 2014
Communities funds for a range of sports, arts, heritage and community Games
inspired activities.
A full list of all projects
sharing in funding is available
Announcing the awards totalling £967,245 Big Lottery Fund
Scotland Director, Jackie Killeen, said: “Today’s awards
from the Celebrate and 2014 Communities funds will bring communities together
to enjoy a range of events such as Queen’s Baton relay races, street
parties, arts exhibitions and heritage projects highlighting local links to
Commonwealth Countries. In doing so they will help ensure that communities
across Scotland benefit from the 2014 Games.”
Amongst the successful groups is
the Trust Housing Association Ltd which receives a
Celebrate award of £9,250 to set up
reminiscence groups for older people at six sheltered housing complexes and
community settings across Edinburgh. This will encourage new friendships, as
well as capturing memories of sport in Edinburgh which will culminate in a
public exhibition at Lifecare’s community centre cafe in
Stockbridge.
Mary Thompson, Service
Manager, Trust Housing Association, said:
“We are eager to get this fantastic project up and running in Edinburgh.
It’s a great way to engage any isolated tenants, link to the Commonwealth
Games and encourage conversations and new friendships as well as to trigger and
capture memories of sport in Edinburgh. The groups will be focussed on
capturing memories of watching, playing or supporting sport in Edinburgh,
including the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games of 1970 and 1986. The project will
involve engagement with young people from local primary and secondary schools,
with older students recording the stories for online and printed material and
younger pupils recording shorter stories and adding their own
illustrations.”
The Southside Elderly
Club receives a Celebrate award
of £3,200 to hold a Chaand Raat celebration
event in July 2014. Chaand Raat is a time of celebration to mark the end of
Ramadan. The event will be aimed at women who have family and cultural links
with Pakistan but will also be open to the wider community.
Malik Masood,
Co-ordinator, Southside Elderly Club, said: “This funding will
help towards our Chand Raat which will be filled with lots of activities such
as henna painting, clothes and jewellery stalls and traditional dancing. We are
delighted to receive this award to help us celebrate the end of Ramadhan and to
involve more females from the Asian community.”
The Scottish Centre of
PEN International receives a Celebrate award
of £7,021 to host 12 literary workshops with
schools from across Edinburgh. These workshops will explore a range of themes
including Scotland’s involvement with the colonies and slavery and the
spread of Gaelic in Canada. Students will be encouraged to submit the writing
which results from the workshops to a national writing
competition.
Drew Campbell, President
of The Scottish Centre of PEN International, said: "We are
delighted to have been awarded funding from the Celebrate fund and thank all
Lottery players for making it possible. The workshops will bring the 2014
Commonwealth Games Culture Scottish PEN Presents events to the attention of
interested young adults, giving them the opportunity to celebrate their local
area's links with countries around the world, and to reflect on the
connections that Scotland's literary and linguistic history shares with
other cultures.”
Many of the funded projects will
also encourage more people to take up sport and physical
activity. Balgreen Primary
School in Edinburgh receives a grant
of £1,810 from the 2014 Communities fund to
deliver a programme of sporting activities for girls who do not generally
participate in physical activities inside or outside of
school.
Fiona Christie, Head
Teacher, Balgreen Primary School, said: “We are delighted to be
offered a grant from the Big Lottery Fund to promote the participation of girls
in sport and exercise. The money will be used to establish an after
school girls club for primary 5 to 7 pupils. Girls, who have limited
participation in active clubs, will be asked about the types of activities they
would like and the award will allow us to hire coaches and buy
equipment.”
Celebrate i
s a joint programme from all four Scottish Lottery Distributors: Big Lottery
Fund, Creative Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland. It supports
one off arts, heritage, sports and community events to celebrate the people,
places and culture of the Commonwealth and of the Games
themselves.
2014
Communities awards Big Lottery Fund grants to projects that
introduce Scots of all ages to a wide range of physical activities,
volunteering opportunities and healthier lifestyles.
Details of the wide range of
2014 legacy projects supported by the Big Lottery Fund are available at http://bigblogscotland.org.uk/2014/02/24/our-2014-legacy/
Big Lottery Fund Press
Office: 0141 242 1483 or 1451
Out of hours media contact: 07795 454 924
Website:www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Twitter:@BIGScotland #biglf
Facebook:www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFundScotland
Notes to
editors
- Celebrate is a £4 million
joint awards programme from the four Scottish Lottery distributors: Big Lottery
Fund, Creative Scotland Heritage Lottery Fund and
sportscotland
- Celebrate allows communities
across Scotland to apply for up to £10,000 to organise events that
celebrate the 2014 Commonwealth Games through arts, heritage, sports, community
and local celebrations or events that celebrate the people places and culture
of the commonwealth.
- 2014 Communities, run by the Big
Lottery Fund, is a micro grants programme, offering local sports clubs,
voluntary and community organisations, community councils and schools grants of
£300 to £2,000 to support and stimulate grass roots involvement in
sport and physical activity.
- 2014 Communities is about
building a legacy of well-being before and beyond the Commonwealth Games. It
aims to encourage more people to take part or volunteer in sport or physical
activity as well as encourage greater community cohesion in the run up to the
2014 Commonwealth Games.
- The Big Lottery Fund, the
largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for
giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National
Lottery.
- 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 June 2004. The Fund was formally
established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began
in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a
result, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,000 grants
awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the
environment