Lottery cash is a godsend
Charity feared it was on ‘its last legs’ until £80k grant secured its future
A charity at the heart of life in Burnhill has received funding which will secure its future for the next three years.
Burnhill Action Group – which operates two hubs in the Rutherglen scheme – this month received £78,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund.
The money will be used to continue its existing work but also launch a new health and wellbeing hub which aims to reduce isolation amongst adults whilst bolstering their physical and mental health.
It will also fund events to bring the community together to celebrate and a winter and summer programme of activities for residents of all ages.
This includes bingo afternoons, coffee mornings, arts and crafts, outdoor activities – like growing fruit and veg – and trips.
Rebecca Haack, operations director at Healthy n Happy Community
Development Trust, which supports Burnhill Action Group, said: “This funding will enable these activities to continue as part of a three-year delivery plan, whilst developing new activities local residents have identified as a priority including a new local hub for adults that aims to improve their health and wellbeing,
“These activities aim to increase local participation and engagement in activities that build confidence, self-esteem and skills alongside increasing mental and physical health, social networks and enhanced relationships and connections within the community.”
The activities will add to the existing work of Burnhill Action Group which currently operates a community hub and family hub.
They offer employability support, welfare rights and financial advice, early years’ and children’s activities and a youth club as well as weekly activities for families and provision of meeting spaces for local groups. Margaret Feeny has been secretary of the group for seven years.
And she says that without the National Lottery Community Fund windfall, the future of some of the group’s services would have been hanging in the balance.
She admits: “I don’t know what we would have done. It was on its last legs. If we hadn’t had the funding, a lot of the things that go on here would have been finished.
“We only had enough funding for another couple of months, so this is a godsend. The parent café and family hub would have been no more.”
Burnhill Action Group’s activities are open to all who live and work in Burnhill and the surrounding areas.
Anyone who would like to attend events should contact Healthy n Happy’s Transforming Communities team on 0141 646 0123. To keep up to date with all things Burnhill, like the community Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ burnhillactiongroup/