Introducing our Strong Foundations Grant recipients in Edinburgh

We continue to roll out our Strong Foundations Grants for 2022, heading north to our heritage home in Scotland. Our latest Edinburgh grant saw £9,000 made available for grassroot community and charity projects in the local area.  

Successful submissions were shortlisted and then judged by a panel made up of colleagues from projects and offices across our Northern region and Jenny Mungall from Impact Scotland.

We are pleased to announce the following as awardees of our 2022 grants. 

• North Edinburgh Arts deliver projects for deprived communities with access to limited quality public greenspace. Funds from our grant will help towards costs for a gardener to run free sessions each week through autumn into early winter. The sessions will focus on growing food, gardening for wildlife and the environment and will provide opportunities for participants to develop food growing skills, access local produce, develop cooking skills and learn about and cultivate the local natural environment. The garden team has a wealth of experience working with the local community, children, and families, promoting public and participatory art, greenspace development and innovative uses of creative play. 

• Dads Rock is the only charity in Scotland to focus on supporting and inspiring dads to have the strongest relationships they can with their children. Funding will help support parenting workshops that deliver a programme of information sharing sessions on parenting skills, health, and wellbeing. The workshops will include antenatal advice, feeding, first-aid, hair styling, and sleeping workshops. Attending these skills workshops helps dads to respond better to their children’s needs and give them the confidence to tackle any issues their children may present and improve the relationships between father and child, and the mental wellbeing of the entire family unit. 

• Pilton Youth & Children's Project will use our grant to facilitate indoor and outdoor play and activities, promoting health and wellbeing. Poverty, unemployment, health inequalities & poor housing affect the children & families they work with, which can have a lifelong impact on them. These after school and holiday clubs promote health and wellbeing and help to create happy childhood memories for years to come. 

We are delighted that Sir Robert McAlpine will be supporting a number of projects in the city region ahead of starting work on Dunard Centre. We were inspired by the range of applicants delivering important projects to benefit their communities and wish them well over the coming months.

Jenny Mungall Development Director Impact Scotland