Charityreceives £7,500funding boost
A charity based in Eastern Perthshire is celebrating after a £7,500 donation.
Alyth Youth Partnership, a charity providing clubs and activities for young people between the ages of nine and 25 in the Strathmore region, has received £7,500 from Scotmid Cooperative Community Connect.
The money is from the sale of 5p single-use bags in its shops.
The charity aims to promote social inclusion, and address youth anti-social behaviour, as well as encouraging young people to take a pride in their local community.
George Annan, manager of AYP, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be awarded £7,500 funding from Scotmid’s Community Connect initiative - it provides us with a great opportunity to engage with even more young people in our local area through exciting projects.
“We want young people to take pride in Alyth and we will use the funding to showcase local talent that will leave a lasting impression through a growing arts festival.”
Mr Annan now says he hopes the money will be spent on creating artwork:“One of the pieces of art we want to create is a bronze statue that will forever be in Alyth - standing the test of time and showing the positive contribution that Alyth Youth Partnership can make.
“This funding gives us the freedom to be really creative for the next year and we’re extremely thankful to all the Scotmid members, who voted for us.”
Customers at the shops were asked to vote for their favourite charities, and last year over 1,000 local community groups and charities applied to the initiative for funding.
John Brodie, chief executive of Scotmid Cooperative, said: “Congratulations to Alyth Youth Partnership, who have been awarded £7,500 funding through our community connect initiative, which is funded from the sale of single-use carrier bags.
“The outcome was decided by the votes cast by our members and it is great to be able to award all the short-listed groups with funding to enable them to continue the good work that they do.
“Our core purpose is to serve our communities and improve people’s everyday lives, so it is very pleasing to see community connect continue to develop into an extremely worthwhile initiative for our members and local good cause groups - bringing people together and bringing worthwhile projects to life.”