Local charity Esteem Clydesdale have been short-listed to become the latest recipients of funding from Scotmid Co-operative’s Community Connect initiative – potentially being awarded up to £15,000 to further their services.
Community Connect was initially trialled in the North of Scotland last year and enables Scotmid members to award good cause groups in their local area with funding of up to £15,000, generated via the sale of single use carrier bags.
In Scotmid’s West Member Region – encompassing Glasgow, Paisley, Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Lanarkshire – Equitots are one of three good cause groups, who have been short-listed by a Scotmid member selection panel to receive a financial award of either £15,000, £7,500 or £2,500.
The other short-listed Good Cause Groups are Equitots and St Andrew’s Hospice.
Scotmid members collect votes by swiping their Community Connect card after every in-store purchase and then cast their votes for their preferred good cause group at Scotmid’s West Region Ordinary General Meeting in October.
Esteem Clydesdale are a volunteer-led organisation based in Lanark, who aim to support individuals and families with mental health problems and self-harm thoughts. The funding will be used to help the group expand into the most isolated and rural communities in Clydesdale to train volunteers and to set up self-support groups and hubs.
Theresa Elder, Esteem Clydesdale, added “The Community Connect funding will help us expand our offering and help more people in the Clydesdale community, particularly in isolated and rural communities. Our focus is supporting individuals and families facing mental health problems and thoughts of self-harm, and we want to train more volunteers and increase the number of self-support groups and hubs. With mental health related illness on the rise this cause is increasingly important and local support is crucial.”
The recipients of the first-ever Community Connect award for £15,000 was charity Street Connect, who plan to use the funding to refurbish their Outreach Cafe in Glasgow city centre – helping support disadvantaged individuals dealing with addiction problems and related life-controlling issues such as mental health, homelessness and isolation.