Young Start awards help young Scots reach their potential

10 Mar 2016 04:05 PM

Ten projects helping young Scots across the country to reach their full potential share in £416,935 from Young Started yesterday (March 10, 2016).

• In Glasgow, Crossroads Youth and Community Association will use their £31,574 grant to run a series of visual arts activities, including creating a new mural depicting life in the Gorbals.
• Just Festivals in Edinburgh will use their £37,616 award to teach unemployed young people practical skills in lighting and sound and stage management.
• In East Lothian, Volunteer Development East Lothian (VDEL) will offer local youngsters an environmental award scheme, which will teach them a range of conservation and outdoor activities, thanks to an award of £49,980.

Crossroads Youth and Community Association will also be able to continue to run their successful Hip Hop Skool, where local youngsters get the chance to learn to produce and record their own music.

Chris Mitchell, a Youth Worker for the assosciation, , said, “A strong neighbourhood community can have a huge positive impact on a young person’s relationships to their friends, their family and their neighbours, as well as their own self-esteem and sense of well-being. We want to achieve this strong sense of self by supporting young people to express themselves more effectively and positively through the arts. By increasing their sense of connection to Gorbals they will be able to develop their understanding of where they come from and who they are.

“Our Hip Hop Skool will teach young people about the creative process involved in producing music by writing lyrics, producing beats and recording their completed piece. The project will develop their confidence, self-esteem and communication as they produce music based on their challenges and experiences of being a young person growing up in the Gorbals.“

Just Festival will be able to provide month long supported work placements at various Edinburgh Fringe venues this August giving the youngsters the opportunity to put their newfound skills into practice.

John Grieve, Coordinator, Just Festival, said, “It’s fantastic news that our project, “Staged for Life” is being funded by Young Start. This support will make a huge difference in enabling us to increase the scale of what we are doing, giving more people access to training and work placement opportunities. We are very excited to be given the opportunity to continue making a positive impact on young people’s lives.”

Dudley Ramsay, 18, from Edinburgh took part in the pilot project Just Festival ran in 2014. Dudley said, “I learned so many practical skills from actually doing the work and the intensity of the festival meant that I learned it fast. I also met loads of great people and really enjoyed myself. I’m now more confident in general and I have lots of new useful skills and knowledge, which will hopefully get me a job in the fields I am interested in.”

VDEL aim to give the young people they support the confidence to go on to access employment, education or volunteering opportunities.

Steven Boyle, Head of Adventure and Youth, said, “This Young Start funding is a huge investment in the young people we work with as this programme will encourage them to embark on a journey of lifelong learning. We will be able to do this using adventurous activities like rock climbing, surfing, mountain biking and paddle boarding allowing young people to take the lead. This, alongside being part of residential experiences and expeditions and working on conservation projects, will help them become more positive local and global citizens.”

Announcing yesterday’s funding totalling £343,850, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair, Maureen McGinn, said: “Children and young people across Scotland will be able to to unlock their talents through a range of activities that will engage and inspire them to follow their dreams while building skills and confidence for the future. The Young Start programme creates opportunities for children and young people to help them be all they can be and every one of these projects reflects that aim.”

Run by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland, Young Start awards money from dormant bank and building society accounts to support a range of projects to help young people aged eight to 24 years old reach their full potential. These latest nine awards to groups will allow young people across Scotland to access a wide range of new opportunities.

For more information about Young Start visit the website at:- 
https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/global-content/programmes/scotland/young-start

The other seven projects receiving funding from Young Start are:-

Citywise Mentoring Ltd- Glasgow
£39,864
The organisation will employ a project manager who will deliver mentoring programmes for children and young people including school clubs and summer programmes. 250 young people from North Glasgow will benefit.

Fersands and Fountain Community Project – Aberdeen City
£ 40,512
The group will run three youth courses, accompanied by additional outreach and drop in session for vulnerable young people.

Maxwelltown Information Centre – Dundee
£26,070
The group will run a series of garden and outdoor activities for local schoolchildren and young people who will learn to grow fruit and vegetable, learn about wildlife and to cook healthy meals.

Kibble Education and Care Centre - Renfrewshire
£ 42,997
The group will run a two year programme of evening art classes for local young people aged between 12 and 18 years of age who will work towards exhibition events.

Pilton Youth & Children's Project - Edinburgh
£50,000
The organisation will deliver a skills programme for local young people aged between 11 and 24 years of age to help them achieve their potential and develop skills for the workplace.

The National Autistic Society - Glasgow
£ 48,322
The organisation will set up two social clubs for young people with autism who will be able to take part in a range of activities from bowling to art sessions.

AfricAlba – Glasgow
£50,000
The group will deliver an enterprising skills programme for young people of primarily African background. This will include business skills workshops and seminars and attendance at local business events.

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 0141 242 1451
Email: lorna.mcniven@biglotteryfund.org.uk
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 Big Lottery Fund supports the aspirations of people who want to make life better for their communities across the UK. We are responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery and invest over £650 million a year in projects big and small in health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
• Since June 2004 we have awarded over £8 billion to projects that change the lives of millions of people. Every year we fund 13,000 small local projects tackling big social problems like poor mental health and homelessness.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £34 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.
• The Big Lottery Fund Scotland is focussed on helping people and communities most in need throughout Scotland through its five-year £250m funding scheme as well as small grants schemes Awards for All and Investing in Ideas.
• Since March 2007 Big Lottery Fund Scotland has taken devolved decisions on Lottery spending, the Committee, led by Chair, Maureen McGinn plays a strategic role in the future direction of the Fund in Scotland.