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Over £200,000 will be invested in projects across Scotland yesterday (16 MAY) thanks to grants from the Communities and Families Fund.

The Fund is a joint venture from the Big Lottery Fund and the Scottish Government, which gives groups working with children of eight years and under a vital helping hand.

Maureen McGinn, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund Scotland Committee, said: “The Communities and Families Fund is helping to give Scotland’s next generation the best possible start in life. Projects such as an innovative toy library, music therapy and gardening will help develop children’s social skills and learning abilities, creativity and confidence. We’re keen to hear from groups across the country which could benefit from this funding and full details of our simple application process can be found on our website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/scotland.”

Over a third of Scottish children leave school without being able to swim and research has shown that swimming from an early age helps a child’s physical, mental and emotional development. The Scottish Amateur Swimming Association Ltd will use their Communities and Families Fund award of £10,000 to offer free swimming lessons to pre-school children in Dundee. The children will get the use of a public pool near to their home and nursery and be given basic swimming basic skills. The children will also receive an Early Years Swim Bag which has advice leaflets for parents, toys for use in the bath at home or in the pool, and armbands and swimming rings. Parents will be encouraged to continue to develop the skills and confidence their children will gain from the Start to Swim project.

Two separate projects in Cumbernauld and Dundee will give children affected by spina bifida the chance to meet and play together. Yesterday’s grant of £9,945 means Scottish Spina Bifida Association can run a programme of monthly activities for the children, their siblings, parents and carers. The play sessions will give the children the chance to play with other children who are living with the condition and help improve their confidence and social skills. At the same time, the children's siblings can meet and play together giving them important respite and support. Parents and carers will meet separately to attend talks, learn about support services and to socialise together.

The Toy Library on Islay and Jura has been running since 2003 and provides a friendly and informative meeting place for parents and carers with toys to borrow and different activities and play sessions. They’ll use today’s grant of £9,876 to continue running their stay and play services for under eight’s across the local islands. The group run sessions at Port Charlotte, Jura toddlers, Port Ellen toddlers and support a local Gaelic class. There are few chances for communal events for the local children and nothing for babies. Now the group can accommodate babies with suitable toys, train staff to support disabled children and they’ll hold two celebratory events to mark their 10th birthday which will be open to all.

The Flowerbank Nursery and Family Centre in Kilmarnock caters for children from birth to age five and their parents, providing a number of services and supporting all families with young children in the area. The centre has a garden at the front which is used by three to five year olds with the garden to the rear for younger children, birth to three years. Both are overgrown and not used much so today’s grant of £9,404 means they can be given a much needed face lift. Parents and staff will work together to refurbish the areas, adding raised beds, shelters, seating and new outdoor toys and picnic tables. As many of the families do not have gardens of their own and children lack a safe outdoors place to play, the restored Flowerbank gardens will offer a welcoming environment where the children can explore, learn and run free.

Sing and Grow UK is a music therapy group that works in the community with families and children who are experiencing life challenges. They concentrate on helping participants relax and interact together, forming strong family bonds and improving mental health. Sessions include sing-a-longs and are led by professional music therapists. A grant of £7,416 for Home-Start Glasgow North West means that two ten week programmes can be run in Maryhill and Knightswood for children from birth to four years. Families will be referred to the sessions, which are free, and each family will get a CD of all the songs they’ve learned to encourage them to continue singing at home.

The Communities and Families Fund will run over the next two years with £4.5 million from The Scottish Government and £1.5 million from the Big Lottery Fund.  Groups can apply for funding from £250 to £10,000. To find out more about the scheme and how to apply visit

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/scotland.

Across Scotland, 25 groups share in Communities and Families funding totalling £226,174.

For more details contact Frances Chisholm, Press Team Scotland, 0141 242 1458
BIG advice line: 0300 123 7110    
For more information about Big Lottery Fund programmes
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/scotland
Follow us on Twitter @BIGScotland or like us on Facebook Big Lottery Fund Scotland

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), 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.
• BIG 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 BIG has awarded close to £6bn.
• 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 £29 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
• The Early Years Taskforce was set up in November 2011 to provide strategic leadership for the Early Years Change Programme and co-ordinate policy across Government and the wider public sector to ensure that Early Years spending is prioritised by the whole public sector.
• Scottish Government funding will be drawn from the wider £270 million Early Years Change Fund, which includes a Scottish Government contribution of £50 million over the next four years.
• The Scotland Committee, led by Chair Maureen McGinn, has been making Big Lottery Fund decisions on Scottish projects since March 2007. As well as taking devolved decisions on Lottery spending, the Committee has and will continue to play a strategic role in the future direction of BIG in Scotland.
• The Big Lottery Fund is funding Scotland’s communities through the Investing in Communities portfolio as well as the small grants schemes Awards for All, 2014 Communities and the Communities and Families Fund.