Increased grant awards will provide support worth £8.6m across Shetland

December 1st 2021

Shetland Charitable Trust (SCT) is to pay out increased grants worth £8.6 million to help fund 29 major projects and charity organisations next year.

Increased grant awards will provide support worth £8.6m across Shetland

Shetland Charitable Trust (SCT) is to pay out increased grants worth £8.6 million to help fund 29 major projects and charity organisations next year.

The awards approved by trustees under the Main Grant Scheme for 2022/23 are up £280,000 on this year. They include a 30 per cent increase in funding to Shetland Islands Citizens Advice Bureau to provide a fuel poverty advice service. Its grant of £272,300 will also help the bureau extend its range of advice and information to people who are hard to reach.

Among several organisations receiving an annual grant from SCT for the first time are Clan Cancer Support (£20,100), to help provide a dedicated service for children and families in Shetland; and Who Cares? Scotland which will receive £35,100 to support people with experience of the care system for children and young adults.

The priority aim of SCT funding is to help groups tackle inequality and social isolation, such as the work of the Sandwick Social and Economic Development (SCIO) which delivers hot meals to vulnerable folk in Sandwick and Dunrossness. A new grant of £15,600 will go towards that service.

The main charitable organisations supported each year by SCT are the three big trusts and the Shetland-wide care service. Shetland Recreational Trust’s funding will go up £78,700 to £3.23m for 2022/23 to run its network of six leisure centres, sports fields and two swimming pools.

Shetland Islands Council will get £1.99m to help pay for Shetland’s higher standard of community care while Shetland Amenity Trust gets £1.2m. Other large grants include £682,500 to Shetland Arts Development Agency; six project grants totalling £358,000 to Voluntary Action Shetland and £230,600 to social enterprise company COPE Ltd.

SCT chair Dr Andrew Cooper said: “We are supporting many more local charitable organisations this year and next year than happened in the past. Their services make such a difference to community life. It’s great also to see excellent new proposals coming to us for backing, such as the fuel poverty advice service and the cancer support service.”

As well as the main grant awards, SCT operates two other schemes offering small grants and also capital works grants to help with major repairs to key community buildings, most of which SCT helped fund the construction.

Please see list of grant awards here

Contact: John Robertson

noostmedia@gmail.com Tel: 07775 407 796

Testimonials

The funding COPE Ltd receives from the Shetland Charitable Trust supports us in many ways. It allows us to develop and maintain a strong foundation to our core business and assists us to provide on-going employment skill development opportunities to people with disabilities living within Shetland. COPE Ltd highly values the support provided to our organisation by The Shetland Charitable Trust.

“The substantial grant made to us by Shetland Charitable Trust every year allows us to provide first-class facilities and dedicated staff to underpin sporting success among people of all ages and abilities in the islands.”

Having this core funding from the Charitable Trust means that we can use that money where we need it at any given time. It's multi-year funding which really takes the pressure off. To have the funding to keep going is really important as it is improving the lives of disabled folk in Shetland.

The funding that we get from the Charitable Trust pays for part of staff support and matching with other funders. Without local funders we wouldn't have national funders, and without either of those funders, we wouldn't be able to do this, so funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust is incredibly important.

The funding Shetland Arts gets from Shetland Charitable Trust is about making sure the organisation can thrive, access other funds, and deliver on behalf of the community of Shetland. Our funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust really helps us with our conversations with national funders because it shows that we're working on behalf of what the local objectives and priorities are.

The Access to Leisure scheme was introduced to allow folk to be able to get access to classes and activities for a lower cost. I feel that the SRT play a critical role in every community across Shetland and that's all down to the funding of the Shetland Charitable Trust that we're able to maintain that.

Unpaid carers do an amazing job looking after people 24/7 in their own homes, keeping them living at home safely, and they really need help to do that. Thanks to the funding from Shetland Charitable Trust, we've been able to employ a deputy manager, recruit more care attendants, and provide overnights. We're also really grateful for the funding because it means that everybody can get the service for free.