Glenkerie fund celebrates ten years of local support
The Glenkerie Windfarm Community Fund is celebrating ten years of local support in the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire with another major injection of funds into local communities.
In the latest round of funding, £64,000 was awarded to local services and projects across the Glenkerie fund area.
The aim of the fund, which is provided by Nadara and administered by Foundation Scotland, is to enhance the local environment, ensuring that it is an attractive and vibrant place to live, work and visit.
Since the Fund opened in 2014, it has supported community benefit projects which encourage and promote community spirit, ensure adequate access to services for community members, improve local transport, grow the local economy and develop and maintain community assets.
The Fund is celebrating its 10th year this year and is continuing to support projects located within the areas of Upper Tweed and Tweedsmuir Community Council areas and parts of Biggar, Symington, Stobo, Skirling, Roberton, Lamington and Wiston. Over the last ten years, the fund has provided over £818,000 to 62 groups and charities located within the Fund area.
All awards from the fund are decided by the Glenkerie Panel, which is made up of local residents from the Glenkerie Fund area. The Panel Members use their local knowledge and passion to ensure that awards are making a direct impact in the community.
In September 2024, the latest grant funding round, the Panel awarded just under £65,000 to five projects.
Awards included £30,000 to the Symington Tinto AFC, to contribute to a major refurbishment of the club house. This will help create a destination venue and community space for sports, meetings and recreational use, and will provide a much-needed central hub for the community of Symington and the surrounding rural areas.
Richard Mellanby, Coach & Funding Officer for Symington Tinto AFC Grantee said:
We are delighted to have received this award to support the redevelopment of Symington Tinto AFC’s clubhouse into a community hub. The generous funding is a critical piece of our diverse fundraising jigsaw and we hope this award will persuade other key funding agencies to support this much needed project. Once completed, we believe the reimagined clubhouse will be a fantastic community asset which will provide a superb base for a wide range of community groups and clubs involving not just sport but also education, arts and music activities.
A multi-year grant of £16,550 was awarded over three years to the Clydesdale Food Bank, to support the project with delivery and to provide emergency food parcels, aiming to help residents across the Clydesdale community. This much needed service is based on referrals and will service approximately 150 people including single parent families and children.
The Biggar Corn Exchange also received £10,000 of funding to support a major lighting and sound refurbishment project, which will see the venue replace its existing lighting with energy efficient, computer-controlled LED lights system. This system will not only reduce energy running costs, it will also ensure a safer working environment for the committed volunteers who support the running of the venue. This project will provide services which allow greater accessibility for communities, including live streaming opportunities.
Tweedsmuir Community Council was awarded £5,870 over 3 years to support the development and delivery of the local community newsletter. This project will create a new collaborative effort between three Community Councils including Tweedsmuir, Upper Tweed and Skirling, and will provide a free copy of the newsletter to approximately 500 households throughout the neighbouring communities. This will offer greater accessibility for those who are digitally excluded and do not access social media or online resources.
Niome Lucjan, Community Funds Advisor at Foundation Scotland said:
It is wonderful to see so many impactful and strategic awards being agreed by the Panel and administered across the Fund area. The awards from this round will have a significant impact for the communities they reach and offer transformative change which will continue to benefit the communities for generations to come.
For more information on the fund visit https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk/apply-for-funding/funding-available/glenkerie
The deadline for the next round of funding for community organisations is the 21st of January 2025.