A Scottish charity that improves the wellbeing of older people by helping them to recall their sporting memories, is one of 13 groups today sharing in £2,392,176 of National Lottery cash. The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland receives £349,903 from the Big Lottery Fund to continue and increase the number of social, reminiscence and inclusive sporting activities it delivers for older Scots who are affected by dementia, depression and loneliness. The project, which is based in East Lothian, will work across Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Lothians.
By tapping into a passion for sport, the project will reconnect people like Iain to the people and generations around them. Iain, from East Kilbride, has a dual diagnosis of early onset dementia and Parkinson’s disease.
He said: “After receiving my diagnosis I didn’t really want to go out of the house and had lost confidence. The Sporting Memories group got me active again and I look forward to going every week. I now help new members settle in when they join and I’ve also started volunteering to help run another session so that more people can benefit from this.”
Welcoming the award, Chris Wilkins of The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland said: “We see day in day out how our Sporting Memories groups make a real difference to peoples’ lives and are thrilled to have received this support which will allow us to add to our staff and to support our growing team of fantastic volunteers.
“We have demonstrated that our weekly groups help improve lives by building confidence, nurturing new friendships and improving wellbeing and this award will help us extend this impact to more older sports fans across the Central Belt.”
Edinburgh-based Deaf Action was successful in securing a total of £125,977 National Lottery funding after applying to Big Lottery Fund Scotland.
This group will use the funding to continue the activities of their Youth Service which focuses on young people aged 10-18 who are deaf British Sign Language users. The activities will allow children educated in a mainstream setting to realise the advantages of a multilingual learning environment in evenings, weekends and summer holidays. Activities will be delivered across the catchment area reducing the need to travel to access them and all support will be tailored to individual needs.
Welcoming the announcement, Lothian MSP Miles Briggs said: “I congratulate Deaf Action on securing National Lottery funding for their activities in evenings, weekends and summer holidays, for young British Sign Language users in Edinburgh.
“These activities can make a huge difference to the young people across the capital using the services provided by Deaf Action.”
Announcing today’s grants, Maureen McGinn, Big Lottery Fund Scotland Chair, said: “This project from Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland is an excellent example of the type of activity which National Lottery funding supports.
“Like many of the other activities receiving funding today, it will bring people together around common interests, encourage them to develop friendships and feel more connected to the wider community.”
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