KEEP Scotland Beautiful have been awarded more than £900,000 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to support communities across Scotland to explore, record, protect and celebrate their heritage and plan for future impacts, including climate change, through Our Heritage, Our Future.
Communities provide vital support and ongoing care and protection of our local historic buildings, monuments, places and traditions. Through community action planning and skills development, Our Heritage, Our Future aims to expand the audience engaging with our historic environment, support community awareness and understanding of the threats facing our heritage and inspire action.
Working closely with local organisations, we are establishing local heritage hubs across the country as a base for engagement activities guiding communities to identify the heritage that matters to them and how it could be looked after in the years to come.
Katie O’Donnell, our Communities Manager, said: “The £962,750 grant provided by The National Lottery Heritage Fund is key to driving forward work to inspire community heritage and climate action, and widening engagement with heritage across the country.
“The Our Heritage, Our Future project team can work with your community to help to develop a range of heritage skills such as creating guided tours, planning a pop-up museum, carrying out historical research and recording the historic environment. Through these activities you can work towards obtaining a formal qualification or take part just for fun – so we’d love to hear from you if you want to get involved!
“Through the project, local communities can not only celebrate and protect their past, but they can also recognise the value of their historic assets today, including opportunities for job creation, carbon reduction, energy and waste minimisation, improved mental wellbeing, and creating community cohesion and pride of place.”
In 2023 a Heritage Fund Development Phase grant of £198,165, alongside funding from Historic Environment Scotland, enabled us to lead community heritage engagement activity with a total of eight communities across Scotland including community heritage climate action planning, training in delivering guided tours, and developing a new Heritage topic for Eco-Schools Scotland.
These activities have formed the blueprint for the newly awarded Delivery Phase funding, with ongoing financial support from Historic Environment Scotland.
Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland, said: “We are delighted that thanks to National Lottery players we are supporting Our Heritage, Our Future to be delivered in communities throughout Scotland.
“With our significant support Keep Scotland Beautiful will help people work together to identify and understand the risks facing their local heritage. It will deliver lasting impact equipping communities with the knowledge and skills to care for and share that heritage.”
Find out more about Our Heritage, Our Future and how to get involved.
Our Heritage, Our Future has been made possible with support from Historic Environment Scotland and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery Players.
The project supports the ambitions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on Quality Education, Gender Equality and Sustainable Cities and Communities.
The funding will support communities across Scotland to explore, record, protect and celebrate their heritage and plan for future impacts, including climate change.
Read more and find out how we can support you:
