Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Lotto cash boost to help groups doing great work
Get everything you need to know about where you live with our app or via InYourArea.co.uk; all you have to do is enter a postcode.
JUDITH TONNER
A Coatbridge project supporting vulnerable and isolating members of the community during the coronavirus pandemic has received a lottery boost of £30,000 as residents band together to assist one another.
The grant to Kirkshaws neighbourhood centre is among four Covid-19 response initiatives across Monklands to share a total of nearly £55,000 as they help those in need of support.
Residents in Kirkshaws will use the grant from the National Lottery’s community fund to provide a delivery service for food and toiletries to vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
They are also running a phone befriending service to reduce isolation and identify where help might be needed and provide activity packs to keep children busy during the lockdown.
Northern Corridor community volunteers (NCCV) are benefiting from a £6300 grant to run its similar shopping, delivery and emergency pack provision service for vulnerable and isolating residents.
The group – which covers areas including Glenboig, Moodiesburn, Gartcosh, Chryston and Muirhead – has switched focus during the pandemic from its usual environmental projects, which include creating community gardens and new green spaces.
Volunteers are providing packs of basic groceries, healthy fruit and vegetables, and “comfort packs” of basics for those who are unwell, and are also offering to provide dog walking for those needing help.
NCCV member Claire Williams said: “This award is enabling us to react rapidly to the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities, to ensure the current health crisis does not become a hunger crisis.
“The emergency food and comfort packs have gone out to people in so many differing life situations, demonstrating that this service is much needed.”
Whinhall allotments association is receiving £8340 to boost their community response to help vulnerable families across Airdrie and the surrounding villages.
Volunteers are delivering food, vouchers and other essential items to families who are struggling as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
A grant of £ 10,000 has also gone to Monklands Women’s Aid to allow them to continue to provide vital support for women experiencing domestic abuse.
The funding will be used to upgrade equipment, allowing staff to work from home during lockdown and continue providing the much-needed support.
National Lottery community fund Scotland director Neil Ritch said: “In these difficult and unprecedented times, it’s heartening to see the way Scottish communities are coming together to provide each other with support.
“Many of them have found innovative ways to keep their communities connected during the current crisis, whilst others will support people in the future when they can physically come back together to make great things happen in their community.
“These awards, made possible by National Lottery players, recognise the hugely valuable and important contribution Scotland’s voluntary and community sector plays in boosting the health, wellbeing and morale of local people.”
Airdrie-based Scottish Personal Assistant Employers’ Network received £8300 in the same round of lottery grants to fund vital work on their emergency care register, ensuring people whose social and personal care has been reduced or stopped as a result of Covid-19 are provided with personal assistants.
Meanwhile, Utheo Limited has received a five-year-grant of £324,887 for its befriending project based in Bellshill, but which also serves Coatbridge, to expand its work with socially isolated older people and people with disabilities.
It aims to “help people maintain their independence, increase their social relationships and engage in community activities”, and involves 275 people and 90 volunteers across the two towns.
A total of 19 North Lanarkshire organisations shared more than £1.1 million in the latest funding round – including Lanarkshire community food and health partnership, who will use their £9300 grant to scale up their work in response to the coronavirus crisis, delivering food to vulnerable people across the area.
Lanarkshire Association for Mental Health is also receiving £ 116,252 towards its new community hub, which will go on to support people facing difficulties including anxiety and depression to access wellbeing information, services and classes, and will be used by nearly 4000 people.
A further £10,000 is going to Best Way community development, which operates in Nor th Lanarkshire and Glasgow’s east end; it currently delivers food, prescriptions and other supplies to 130 service users and is aiming to expand to help more people.
The National Lottery community fund will be focusing its Scottish grants over the next six months on “projects supporting organisations and communities [responding ] to the challenge of Covid-19”.