Funding joy for rural, community-led projects

OVER 180 rural, community-led projects are sharing £3m of Scottish Government funding between them.

Among the projects to benefit from the funding include a network of local mountain bike trails, the opening up a community hall as a ‘warm space’ over the winter, the purchase of educational equipment by a community centre to address the psychological and mental health of local children, plus the installation of solar thermal panels at a community hub to help manage electricity costs.

Grants between several hundred pounds and £100,000 have been issued under the government’s Rural & Island Communities Ideas into Action Fund – which is administered jointly with the venture philanthropy organisation, Inspiring Scotland.

Says a Scottish Government announcement, here: “The fund encourages and supports not-for-profit community groups with innovative approaches to community-led local development, including work towards ‘net zero and just transition’ goals, tackling rural poverty and supporting rural communities through the cost-of-living crisis.”

Picture credit: Inspiring Scotland