Community / Small community groups secure funding from charitable trust
TWELVE small community groups are set to receive grants of up to £5,000 from the first round of a new-look funding scheme run by Shetland Charitable Trust.
Sandness-based vegetable-growing enterprise Transition Turriefield has secured £5,000 to assist with the first year of its Grow Shetland Project to help people grow their own food.
Grants of £5,000 are also going to three local groups dedicated to providing hot meals or a weekly day care service to elderly and other vulnerable people throughout the South Mainland.
There are also grants for the Islesburgh Sixty-Plus Group, Whiteness and Weisdale Good Companions and Yell Senior Leisure Club.
Drama group Brenna Players is receiving £5,000 to expand drama production into new areas and Shetland Samaritans will receive a £4,000 boost to strengthen and promote its free help service.
The combined Tingwall, Scalloway and Burra junior football club TSB will get £2,375 to buy new youth goals and repair existing ones.
Shetland Folk Society’s Young Fiddler of the Year competition in September will be supported by a £2,300 grant and the music social group The Bop Shop has bagged £2,196 for film and sound equipment.
The awards come from the trust’s small grant scheme, which helps groups with a turnover of less than £50,000 a year and focuses on projects seeking to reduce inequality and social exclusion in island life, which is now the principle aim of all the charitable trust’s grant schemes.
Charitable trust chairman Dr Andrew Cooper said: “It is fine to see so many people in Shetland willing to give of their time as volunteers to make all these great ideas spring to life. The trust is delighted to do its bit to help.”
The funding pot for the small grant scheme in 2021/22 was increased from £30,000 to £100,000 to help small groups overcome funding challenges or to extend their helping hand to more people in the community.
The initial round has resulted in awards totalling £39,470, allowing trustees to launch a second round which is open to applications from 26 April until 7 June. Details are on the trust’s website.
Meanwhile, larger charitable organisations have the chance to apply each year to the trust’s main grant scheme, which this year is paying out £8.3 million to 26 local projects and organisations.
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