Tag: CCLASP

Scotmid Community Connect cash for three local projects

Three charities based in the East of Scotland have been awarded £8,500 each, thanks to Scotmid Co-operative’s Community Connect award scheme.

Children with Cancer & Leukaemia Advice and Support for Parents (CCLASP), the Citadel Arts Group and Venture Scotland, secured the funding after being shortlisted by the convenience retailer as one of nine good causes across Scotland to receive financial support from a total pot of £75,000.

Edinburgh-based Venture Scotland, a charity which provides young people aged between 16 and 30, who are struggling with life, the chance to take part in a personal development course based in the outdoors, expressed their gratitude at receiving the lifeline funding.

David Brackenridge, CEO of Venture Scotland, said: “The pandemic has been a difficult time for everyone. However, it has been particularly hard for young people who were already struggling with their mental health before we went into lockdown.

“Scotmid’s generous funding will allow us to continue to support disadvantaged young people through our outdoors based personal development Journey programmes, to enable them to lead happier, healthier and more fulfilled lives.”

Since Scotmid’s Community Connect launched in 2017, more than £450,000 has been awarded to 54 good cause groups enabling key projects to come to life in local areas.

Harry Cairney, Chair of East Regional Committee at Scotmid, said: “The pandemic has created numerous challenges for communities to overcome and adapt to.

“Community Connect was established to enable us to extend the ways in which we can support the communities that we serve, and we are delighted to provide Venture Scotland, CCLASP and the Citadel Arts Centre, with this funding as they continue to provide vital support to their communities.”

CCLASP has provided vital support for families living with a child with cancer for the last 25 years. They offer families respite holidays at their cottage in Muthill. These holidays provide an oasis of peace for families at their darkest of times and any funds will be used to keep this amazing offering open to families needing a break.

Based in Leith for the last 10 years, Citadel Arts Group stimulates and expresses the creativity of older people through stories, memory books and lively dramas helping to celebrate the history of Leith. Funding will be used to create audio plays inspired by the stories to entertain the whole community.

In normal times, Scotmid would typically select a shortlist of community projects which its members then vote on to allocate different amounts of funding.

However, due to the pandemic, the Scotmid Board agreed that all shortlisted charities and community groups would receive equal amounts of funding within each region.

Amazon Edinburgh makes donations to local charities for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

The team from the Amazon Customer Service Centre in Edinburgh has donated a total of £1,500 worth of toys and pyjamas to Cancer & Leukemia Advice & Support for Parents (CCLASP) and Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity as part of the company’s global Amazon Goes Gold campaign during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

Amazon Goes Gold is Amazon’s annual campaign to raise awareness and funds during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. In addition to partnering with hospitals and research organisations around the world, Amazon also wraps a selection of its delivery fleet in gold ribbons during the month of September to further increase awareness across its network. The Amazon Goes Gold campaign was launched in 2017. 

Valerie Simpson, from CCLASP, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many of the team at the Amazon Customer Service Centre in Edinburgh working in their pyjamas in support of Childhood Cancer Awareness month!

“I’d like to thank Rachel and the team for raising awareness through #AmazonGoesGold and for providing us with a donation, which will be greatly appreciated by everyone at CCLASP. We could hardly believe it when the team showed up with all the pyjamas and toys – the children will love them.” 

While we’re all facing a global pandemic, more than 300,000 children will also be diagnosed with pediatric cancer this year, and it’s the number one non-communicable disease causing the death of children around the world. 

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with CCLASP and Edinburgh Children’s Hospital for Amazon Goes Gold,” said Rachel Seaward-Simpson, Site Leader at the Amazon Customer Service Centre in Edinburgh.

“We want patients and kids everywhere affected by childhood cancer to imagine the future innovators in themselves. It’s an honour to make a difference for such an important cause that affects families around the world.” 

This donation will support CCLASP and Edinburgh Children’s Hospital in their missions to provide practical and emotional support to families affected by childhood cancer.

National Lottery money helps connect Edinburgh communities

An award of £9,500  announced today to Children with Cancer and Leukaemia Advice and Support for Parents SCIO (CCLASP) means that they will be able to provide essential food and household items for families with children suffering from cancer leukaemia. 

Scotland Yard Adventure Centre also receives an award of £10,000 to provide a targeted advice service for some of the most vulnerable disabled children and their carers. And an award of £14,000 means that Children 1st, based in Edinburgh, will be able to increase the capacity of their telephone helpline and digital support service, Parentline, to meet increased demand during the COVID-19 crisis.

The awards to CCLASP, Scotland Yard Adventure Centre and Children 1st are three of 31 Edinburgh based projects sharing in £271,636  of funding from The National Lottery  Community Fund.

There’s money too for LifeCare’s Cheyne Gang choir to move online, Granton Youth Centre for a mudic video project and support for both Leith Festival and ELREC’s Edinburgh Climate Festival.

Across the country 282 groups, from charities to smaller voluntary led community projects, are receiving funding raised by National Lottery players for a range of activities, many of which will help people to support each other through the COVID-19 crisis.

Gordon Murdie, General Manager, CCLASP, said: “The National Lottery Community Fund award has ensured that the charity can meet its ongoing staff and running costs through the pandemic and be ready to resume its operation in full as soon as the Scottish Government allows.

“This funding has allowed us the financial security to diversify and assist the families we serve in the best way we can during these difficult times.  Lockdown is challenging in general but for families with children suffering from cancer and leukaemia it is particularly difficult.

“Since lockdown began, we have delivered over 20,000 items to around 300 children and their families.  These deliveries of essentials, small treats and toys to brighten the days have meant so much to so many.”   

Ellen Starkey, Fundraising Assistant, Scotland Yard Adventure Centre, said: “Here at The Yard we were delighted to receive a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund for our COVID-19 services.

“It will enable us to provide at-home play ideas, online mental health and wellbeing sessions, online play sessions and much more for disabled children, young people and their families, as well as our small, targeted service at The Yard, Edinburgh.

“We hope this support will offer fun, respite and a much-needed community of support for our families at this time. Thank you!”

Linda Jardine, Director of Children and Family Services, Children 1st, said: “Right now, more families across Scotland are getting the support they need to cope through the coronavirus crisis, thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund’s support for Parentline.

“Parentline is our digital family support service, offering help by phone, by webchat and online, every day of the week.  Families are telling us that as they face the strains of losing loved ones, mounting financial pressures and the stress of juggling the care their children need with work and other demands, the support Parentline offers is quite simply a lifeline.

“Parentline is here for any family in need of support on 08000 28 22 33, or online: www.children1st.org.uk/parentline.”

Announcing today’s funding totalling £3,384,222, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Director, Neil Ritch, said: “These awards, made possible by National Lottery players, are making an amazing contribution to the nation-wide response to combat the impact of COVID-19 on local communities across Scotland.  

“This funding will make a huge difference to the lives of thousands more people and highlights the vital work that’s being done in communities across the country at the moment.  It also reminds us all how important a package of tailored support can be to improve well-being and help forge a sense of belonging to a wider community again.”

The National Lottery Community Fund, over the next six months, will focus its National Lottery funding in Scotland on those projects that supporting organisations and communities to respond to the challenge of COVID-19.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk    

Local children’s cancer charities go gold with Amazon

The Amazon Customer Service Centre in Edinburgh raised awareness for Childhood Cancer Awareness in September with a special event to highlight the innovative work being done by hospitals and charities to support children and families across Scotland. Continue reading Local children’s cancer charities go gold with Amazon

Students’ photshoots help families smile

Jessica CCLASP

Two Edinburgh College photography students have teamed up with Leith-based charity CCLASP​ (Children with Cancer and Leukaemia, Advice and Support for Parents) to give children affected by cancer a reason to smile by offering free family photoshoots to provide lasting memories.

The chance to carry out the shoots started after student Derek got chatting to his neighbour and founder of CCLASP, Valerie Simpson. As a way of helping the charity as well as furthering his photography skills, Derek offered to take pictures for the families that the charity supported. He then started carrying out photo sessions with his friend and fellow photography student, David Anderson.

One woman who is forever grateful to Derek and David is Claire Tasker from Kirkcaldy in Fife.  After her little girl Jessica was diagnosed with Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), Claire says that CCLASP was a ‘godsend’.

While Jessica, now 6, has been in remission for the last two years Claire’s mum Kay was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer last February. With the family knowing that her mum didn’t have long after her diagnosis, Claire called on Derek and David to bring the family together for a shoot they would always remember.

Claire says that David and Derek were extremely good at making everyone feel relaxed and the pictures now decorate her house and have been given out as gifts to provide lasting memories of her mum, who sadly passed away in April at the age of 53.

Claire said: “It’s the last photos that we got of us all as a family. I was pregnant at the time so to be able to share that as a family just meant the world. It’s amazing to be able to look back and have those photos with my mum and with my daughter.”

While studies for their BA in Photography continue, David and Derek remain committed to working with CCLASP, photographing events and days out put on by the charity for children who are undergoing treatment or whose condition may be terminal. For the photographers, the family photo-shoots were a moving experience.

“It was a great opportunity to meet all the families, who are fantastically strong considering what they’re going through,” said David, 40, from East Lothian.
Derek, 35, from Leith, said: “We’ve met families from different areas, different walks of life. Their experience is very inspiring.”

CCLASP was set up by Valerie and Bill Simpson after their son Robert was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of six. They started up the Edinburgh based children’s charity in 1994 to help support children and groups of families, to express and share the feelings, anxieties and the horror of having a child with a life threatening illness.

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College photography students snap up funds for charity

Edinburgh College photography students are hoping to raise funds for two charities as part of their end of year exhibition. 

The students are showcasing their latest artwork in Woodland Creatures off Leith Walk, with iconic real life photos of the city and its people as their main inspiration. All of the original photographs have been specially hand-printed and toned in the darkrooms in the College’s own studios.

The Street Photography exhibition runs until 30 May and visitors will have the chance to buy the work with 50 per cent of the proceeds donated to Cclasp and Macmillan Cancer Support charities. Over £100 has been raised for the charities so far.Edinburgh College - Street Photography

Photography: Derek Anderson (photographer), HNC Photography student, Edinburgh College