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Inspiring Scotland’s Creative Communities programme aims to support and empower communities to develop cultural activities that benefit individual and collective well-being. The Creative Communities Scotland Fund will distribute grants to grassroots community-led organisations in Scotland to develop and deliver projects that harness the power of creativity in supporting people and communities.The programme is based on the premise that cultural activity has broad, interlinked benefits for people and communities, and that a participatory approach can lead to greater impact and drive unexpected outcomes. This Fund is focused on supporting communities who face barriers to engaging with cultural activities because of social, economic, cultural, physical or other challenges. This reflects the aims of the Scottish Government’s Culture Strategy to widen access and ensure culture is valued and made accessible to everyone. Successful applicants will join the portfolio of charities which make up the Creative Communities Programme, becoming part of a community of practice facilitated by Inspiring Scotland to share ideas, challenges and approaches with others delivering similar work. Alongside peer learning, charities benefit from capacity building support through 1:1 advice, portfolio events and access to Inspiring Scotland’s pro-bono Specialist Volunteer Network. Your project will support the Creative Communities outcomes. Your project must support at least one of these outcomes:- 1. Provide the opportunity for people to engage in creative arts that they would not have otherwise, have fun and feel joy and pride.- 2. Bring people together, building connections and reducing loneliness.- 3. Help participants develop a wide range of improved skills for life, learning and work.

The Glasgow Wellbeing Fund provides small grants for projects that improve mental wellbeing for adults in the city. The fund aims to support small to medium sized community groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises to deliver mental wellbeing projects across the city’s diverse communities. It is resourced by the Scottish Government, and part of the national Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund.The fund’s primary focus is to support projects that help and support mental health and wellbeing. Counselling or therapy can be included, but priority will be given to more community-focused activities.Projects funded through the Glasgow Wellbeing Fund will need to demonstrate how they build one or more of seven wellbeing drivers: emotional resilience, strength and mindfulness; connection to others within the community; a sense of security, trust and being included; mobility and physical activity; a sense of purpose and being valued through volunteering, helping others, or paid work; support for people who are in distress; access to learning opportunities and the development of new skills and knowledge.Applicants should consider how their proposal contributes to promoting people’s human rights. Priority will be given to projects demonstrating that they work with groups of people who are routinely disadvantaged or excluded in society or have been particularly affected by the cost of living crisis. Community is the key word for applicants. Bringing people together to connect with and support each other is an absolute priority for the fund. Activity funded by the grant must last at least six months and be completed within 18 months from the award date.

The Early Years Parenting Fund will support organisations that improve the development of children most at risk of poor early childhood outcomes, by investing in effective, culturally grounded parenting support.The Fund aims to improve the development of children most at risk of poor Early Childhood Development (ECD) outcomes, by investing in effective parenting support. In this round they want to fund work that can clearly demonstrate its contribution to improving early childhood development for children aged newborn to five.The Early Years Parenting Fund is part of the Getting Started funding priority, which supports families to give young children a strong start in life. In this fund, ‘parents’ includes any caregiver.Starting where ECD outcome gaps are largest to support charitable organisations that do the strongest work in this space. There is significant evidence from UK Governments and What Works centres that shows that specific communities experience multiple barriers, including discrimination, lack of cultural sensitivity of services and limited outreach, in accessing and benefitting from mainstream early childhood services. Early years services and programmes have often focused on the widest audiences and change at scale rather than a targeted, community appropriate approach. This contributes to the high risk of poor early child outcomes that has persisted for specific groups over the past two decades. The Foundation aims to support improved outcomes for two groups: - Children from Black (Caribbean or African, Any Other Black), Pakistani, and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.- Children growing up in high levels of poverty, i.e. live in areas ranked within the most deprived 20% nationally. This is year one of a five year programme focussing on improving children’s outcomes via parenting support. They expect to adapt this fund during the next five years, for example, the next round in 2027 will focus on organisations with the same strong community connections but with developing evidence bases. Future rounds might focus on different parent groups.

The Essentia Foundation is a charity that once operated Health and Social Welfare telephone counselling and information services supported by data processing and analysis in the field of public information. Their clients included HEBS, the Scottish Government, the Department of Health and the Central Office of Information as well as pharmaceutical companies. When the company was sold, the Essentia Foundation was established.The Foundation provides financial support to charities and community groups to help achieve the following objectives:- Improved health and social welfare of children and young people up to the age of 25 years old.- Increased opportunities for training, enhancing learning, upskilling, and developing career opportunities, and supporting young people up to the age of 25 years old to move towards employment.- To learn more about the Essentia Foundation, please visit their website (https://www.essentiafoundation.org.uk/)The fund is looking for projects that:- Support the participation in mainstream society for individuals with learning disabilities or long-term life limiting health conditions- Support young people who face long-term challenges living in poverty and inequality. - Support those who have been excluded from school to access or return to education or training opportunities- Provide skills and training to those who are furthest from the labour market- Aim to improve the health and welfare of children and young people (being those under 25) Please note the above are all in relation to supporting young people up to the age of 25 only.

The National Lottery Film Festival and Screening Programme Fund supports organisations who are looking to produce film festivals and screening programmes in Scotland for a public audience.Activities supported by the fund should increase the reach, impact and diversity of film screenings and events for communities throughout Scotland and meet Screen Scotland’s Audience Development priorities:- Scotland has a diverse screen culture, showcasing the best contemporary and heritage films from Scotland and around the world, raising up new or unheard voices.- Communities across Scotland have access to shared spaces with meaningful, relevant, and enjoyable opportunities to engage in screen culture.- Scotland’s venues, festivals and platforms are sustainable - financially and environmentally - and are positive places to visit and to work within.This fund is project funding, not core organisational funding. However, they encourage using the fund to cover core costs that directly relate to the delivery of your project and development of your team and organisation during the project dates. They encourage you to secure additional funding from other sources, such as sponsors, partners, charities, private or other public funding, to help deliver and expand your programme. Applicants may apply for personal access costs for the project team in line with Creative Scotland’s guidelines.This fund will support activity happening between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026, and for up to 31 August for applications for Development Funding.