LIFT @ Millenium Centre and the Living Memory Association are two of three good causes across the East of Scotland to have received a share of a £25,000 funding pot, thanks to Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative.
LIFT @ Millenium Centre offers support to families from the most disadvantaged areas of Edinburgh and those that are vulnerable either socially or financially. They have received £5,000 from Scotmid to deliver ‘Family Teatime’ sessions, an opportunity for families to play and learn together in a supported environment.
The Living Memory Association has secured £5,000 to continue their work connecting and supporting those isolated or living with dementia. The charity is based in Ocean Terminal, where it offers exhibitions, including The Wee Museum of Memory, as well as recording podcasts and videos.
Jayme Nisbet, Community Base and Family Support Worker, LIFT@ Millennium, said:“We are so thankful to receive £5,000 Scotmid Community Connect funding, which will help us expand our Family Teatime program.
“This is something that is so needed for the local communities in North Edinburgh.”
Russell Clegg, Project Worker Living Memory Association, said:“The Living Memory Association is delighted to have received a £5,000 Community Connect funding award from Scotmid.
“This will allow us to develop new projects for older people in areas of reminiscence, celebrating lived experience and combatting the loneliness and isolation our users can often face.”
The final charity to have secured funding in the East of Scotland is The Children’s Clothing Bank Dunfermline, which provides pre-loved good quality and new clothes in a dignified manner for children aged 0-18 years in the local community.
The next round of funding has shortlisted three charities across the East, Wed and Mid Lothian. Leuchie House provides people living with neurological condition and their families with access to short respite breaks.
Play Therapy Base works with children aged 3 -14 who are experiencing emotional distress and provides a playroom that hosts 1-1 sessions with art therapists.
The Rosebery Centre supports older people living with dementia combat isolation with things like befriending, dance therapy and outings.
Winners will be announced in October.
Keen to support local good causes? Pop into your local Scotmid and pay £1 to become a member.
LIFT @ Millenium Centre and the Living Memory Association are two of three good causes across the East of Scotland to have been shortlisted to receive a share of a £25,000 funding pot, thanks to Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative.
The funding will be announced next April, following a vote by Scotmid members.
LIFT @ Millenium Centre offers support to families living in the most deprived areas of Edinburgh or those that are socially or financially vulnerable. The funding from Scotmid will be used to deliver ‘Family Teatime’ sessions, which will provide families an opportunity to eat, play and learn together in a safe and welcoming environment.
The Living Memory Association brings together people that are socially isolated or living with dementia. From their base in Ocean Terminal, the charity offers exhibitions, including The Wee Museum of Memory, as well as recording podcasts and videos. The funding from Scotmid will be used to employ a part-time sessional worker and cover materials needed for their workshops.
Pauline Nicol-Bowie, CEO/Founder of LIFT, said: “We are incredibly thankful to be part of Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative, which will help us expand our ‘Family Teatime’ programme.
“This is a vital part of local communities in North Edinburgh and we look forward to being able to expand our services to support more people.”
Heather Robertson, Service Co-ordinator at Living Memory Association, said: “The Living Memory Association is delighted to be shortlisted for Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative.
“The funding will allow us to develop new projects for older people to celebrate lived experience and combat the loneliness and isolation the community can often face.”
The other charity shortlisted in the East of Scotland is Children’s Clothing Bank Dunfermline, which provides pre-loved good quality and new clothes in a dignified manner for children aged 0-18 years in the local community.
Keen to support local good causes? Pop into your local Scotmid and pay £1 to become a member.
LIFT are having our opening day on Wednesday 23rd August
Come along for a cuppa and roll in the base
We will have the Bag sale, home baking, a car boot sale without the cars lol
And our official opening of “Sassy Savings” which is a community initiative supported by the parents who attend SASS. It was suggested, we listened and acted.
Keep your eyes peeled or come along for the official opening on Wednesday.
For every £50 made we will purchase shopping vouchers for the Xmas jammie appeal
This is the start of fundraising for Xmas Hampers.
Muirhouse Millennium Centre is among twenty-seven community groupsacross Edinburgh are sharing in a £717,108 cash boost from The National Lottery Community Fund today.
The Millennium Centre receives £97,000 to ‘provide a range of community activities within Muirhouse Millennium Centre engaging approximately 150 local community members and four volunteers.’
Muirhouse Millennium Centre is also the base of LIFT (Low Income Families Together), who run a range of services from the Millennium Centre.
Thanks to an award of £53,463, Leith-based Fast Forward (Positive Lifestyles) Ltd will be able to continue their ‘Ask Dad’ project – a health education and training programme for dads and male carers across Edinburgh and the Lothians -for another three years.
Mark Hunter, Project Officer, Ask Dad, said: “Thanks to this support from The National Lottery Community Fund our ‘Ask Dad’ programme will be able to continue to support dads whose families are going through a period of difficulty.
“We’re looking forward to developing our work to date, including our Good Conversations programme, supporting parents to have what they perceive as awkward, difficult, or embarrassing conversations with their children.
“We are looking forward to working on our new programme, ‘Dad: The Invisible Parent’ which will support better awareness and understanding by practitioners of the challenges faced by dads, to improve their engagement and communication with dads, towards better outcomes for their children.
“In addition, by working with parents who feel ignored or unwelcome by service providers, we aim to improve their ability to communicate with services and to understand a service provider’s role and their limitations.”
Better informed, more confident dads improve the wellbeing of the whole family. They also improve their children’s educational attainment. These impacts are even more profound in the communities affected by poverty and inequality.
An award of £114,344 means that Craigmillar Literacy Trust will continue to provide their support to local families with babies and children up to nine years of age for the next three years.
They will also be able to run their new ‘Express Yourself’ programme for older children and young people aged up to the age of sixteen using digital media and performance to support them to connect with literacy in a way that is more relevant to them.
Kara Whelan, Project Manager, Craigmillar Literacy Trust, said: “This grant will support our work with babies, children, young people, and families in Craigmillar though our early literacy, family literacy and young people’s projects.
“Our work is relationship based and embedded in our community. We are looking forward to building on the strengths we have and to developing new and innovating approaches to supporting literacy in our community.”
Edinburgh Tool Library receives £9,500 to help with the costs of a Volunteer Co-ordinator who will deliver a bespoke training programme for volunteers as well as making links with other third sector organisations in Edinburgh and will help the group engage with new communities and neighbourhoods across the city.
Chris Hellawell, Founder and Director, Edinburgh Tool Library, said: “This support will allow us to reach communities that we haven’t yet spoken to before, help us enhance the support we give to our community and to produce materials to share with other organisations like ours across Scotland so we can amplify the impart of all the hard work or our volunteers in Edinburgh. Thank you so much.”
More Edinburgh projects celebrating today include Ama-zing Harmonies, Big Hearts Community Trust, Leith Community Centre, LifeCare and St Columba’s Hospice.
Across Scotland 179 projects are sharing in£5,752,948today.Announcing the funding, The National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Chair, Kate Still, said: “Local community groups bring people together to support one another through difficult times.
“Sometimes this is as simple as providing a listening ear and other times it can be a real lifeline connecting people who might otherwise be lonely and isolated. Each of the projects receiving funding today in Edinburgh remind us of the power of social connections and the difference that community projects can make to people’s lives.
“National Lottery players can be proud to know that the money they raise is helping to support this vital work.”
The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and more than £30 million a week is raised for good causes across the UK.
Thanks to National Lottery players, last year we awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK. Over eight in ten (83%) of our grants are for under £10,000 – going to grassroots groups and charities across the UK that are bringing to life amazing ideas that matter to their communities.
