Vital funding of £3.5 million

Forty-one Scottish groups are celebrating a total cash boost of £3,499,812 from the Young Start fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund.     

An award of £90,000 to Perthshire based charity, KYTHE, means that they will continue running a variety of youth groups for hundreds of local young people, giving them access to a range of free services such as music lessons, mental health support, study clubs, and CV writing workshops.  

Grady Kinnell, 19, from Kinross started attending various after school sessions at KYTHE when he was 12 years old is now at university and credits the group with helping him to find his vocation. 

Grady said: “Before I joined the group, I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career, but thanks to the sessions, I’ve found my passion - music. I’m in my second year at uni studying music, and I’m in a few bands which play regularly. I’ve played at a couple of fundraising events for KYTHE and when I see how much money the gigs have raised, I feel so proud, and I’m always so happy that I’ve helped give back to an amazing charity which gave me so much.    

“I now volunteer at KYTHE, helping other young people, lots of them are shy like I was when I first joined. I love helping them explore their musical side and it’s great to see new people getting into music.”  

Another group sharing in the funding is the Community Renewal Trust, which has been working with young people from the Roma community in and around Govanhill for over ten years. The group receives £98,149 to continue supporting young people into further education and jobs, a programme which has already seen more than 40 people find employment or go on to college or university.     

 Eighteen-year-old Alex Horvath is one young person who’s already benefitted from the support services from the project and has now begun a Community Facilitator apprenticeship with the charity.      

Alex said: “I am really pleased that I got a chance to work with the project, because otherwise I wouldn't know where I would end up. As a Roma person working in an organisation, it’s a big thing for me because I would never imagine working in an office and helping other young Roma kids.” 

Delia Spatareanu, Senior Youth Worker at Govanhill Roma Youth Project said: “This funding means everything to us as it will give young people the support to develop and take control of their project and we’d like to thank Young Start for making this possible. This funding will take our work with young people to the next level, resourcing a group of young trainees and volunteers to research models of young person run projects and create a Roma youth project which will be truly run by themselves. This is the start of an exciting new journey for Roma young people in Govanhill.” 

Announcing today’s funding, The National Lottery Community Fund, Scotland chair, Kate Still, said: “We’re thrilled to be funding so many projects around the country, which will help thousands more young people like Grady and Alex reach their potential.      

“We are always keen to support projects that put Scotland’s young people at the heart of the development and running of services. If your group has an idea how you would make this happen, then we’d love to hear from you.”               

Young Start helps young people aged eight to 24 become more confident and play an active part in realising their potential. Funding of up to £100,000 is available for youth led projects.