The Community Capacity and Resilience Fund has awarded over £140,000 to help charities in Scotland investigate ideas
Charities have been awarded money from the Scottish Government to come up with new ways to tackle poverty in Scotland.
Over £140,000 has been awarded to 34 third sector organisations in grants of £1,200 – £5,000 through a pilot scheme called the Community Capacity and Resilience Fund.
Administered by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the cash has been awarded to community groups and frontline charities across the country to help them mitigate the impact of welfare reform and tackle poverty.
At the launch of the fund, John Downie, director of public affairs at SCVO, said the organisation had been “overwhelmed” by applications.
“The Community Capacity and Resilience Fund is exploring a new method of getting poverty and welfare reform mitigation funding to the people who need it most by giving frontline organisations the chance to trial ideas that grant giving bodies wouldn’t normally support,” he said.
We were overwhelmed by demand and received truly creative project proposals to tackle poverty and welfare reform
“We were overwhelmed by demand and received truly creative project proposals to tackle poverty and welfare reform.
“The 34 successful organisations’ projects demonstrated innovation and sustainability.”
Organisations to receive awards included the Solway Credit Union, which received a £5,000 grant.
Set up in 1999 by a group of local people, it provides a range of practical, affordable and straightforward financial services to everyone living or working in the area of Annandale and Eskdale, Nithsdale and the Stewartry.
Its new Rent First account aims to help people who receive housing costs as part of their benefits to budget better.
The account allows tenants of registered social landlords to have their benefits paid in to the credit union – which then sends a payment direct to the landlord to cover the rent before making the rest available on a pre-paid card.
Donald Thomson, regional development officer at Solway Credit Union, said: “This grant will ensure that we are adequately staffed to cope with the increase in workload created by our new Rent First Account.
“As a result, our new members receiving Universal Credit will be put at ease to know that their rent will always be paid. In turn, they will have the comfort of knowing that they have taken steps to ensure that they will not get behind with their rent payments, fall into debt or risk losing their home.”
The full list of organisations who received a grant is available on SCVO’s website.
