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

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