Play resources, community gardens and coronavirus responses are among the Monklands community projects being supported by National Lottery grants.
Seven local organisations across Airdrie and Coatbridge are celebrating receiving funding totalling more than £50,000 for their work – including two coronavirus support projects in the same part of Coatbridge, which are receiving a combined total of £9500.
Kirkwood Community Aid successfully applied for £6500 to support its work in providing food parcels, essentials, craft packs and a phone check-in service to vulnerable people who are shielding; while the tenants’ and residents’ association in the same community has received £3000 for its similar work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Grants of £10,000 each are going to Soundsational Community Music Ltd, which runs its popular choir sessions in Coatbridge, and to Airdrie-based additional support needs group Chattersense.
Currently in its 10th anniversary year, Soundsational will use its grant to help “sustain the organisation” and meet salary costs, allowing it to provide online community arts and support during the Covid-19 crisis.
The same sum will be used by Chattersense to run a 12-week support programme helping the families it works with – whose children have difficulties with communication skills and sensory processing – to “transition back to life after-19 lockdown”.
Neighbourhood group Plains Community Futures will expand their environmental work after receiving £8800 to run a community gardening project for all local residents, allowing them to take part either from home or in groups at the area’s communal garden space.
Salsburgh charity Ponies Help Children is focusing on mental health, using its £6800 grant to support young people with disabilities and additional and complex needs to build their resilience by taking part in their work with rescued horses.
Meanwhile, vulnerable youngsters in Coatbridge will receive play-at-home bags filled with fun resources to encourage creative and active fun, after Kirkshaws organisation Parent Action for Safe Play received £6770 to create and distribute the new resources.
The Monklands groups were among 21 across North Lanarkshire to receive funding in the latest round of grants from the lottery’s Community Fund.
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Other recipients include Lanarkshire Carers Centre which will use its £9700 cheque to digitise its carer registration card system to make it more user-friendly; and Families and Friends Affected by Murder and Suicide, which will be developing its helpline thanks to a £7720 grant, “to meet significant increased demand from the Covid-19 lockdown”.
National Lottery community fund Scotland chair Kate Still said: “These awards recognise the incredible work happening across Scotland to create stronger, more connected communities.
“They are made possible by National Lottery players, who can be proud to know that money they raise by buying tickets is continuing to make such a difference.”
