Our new Innovation Fund
Written By Jake Gray
We have today (02 October 2023) revealed funding for seven new projects to be delivered by community trusts associated with SPFL clubs.
The new SPFL Trust Innovation Fund will provide around £10,000 of ‘seed funding’ per participating community trust to test new ideas, providing flexibility to each charity, helping them to find ways that work effectively.
This follows the success of the SPFL Trust’s Winter Support Fund, which saw funding awarded to support ten community trusts to deliver programmes throughout the winter.
Programmes will all focus on alleviating the effects of the cost of living crisis poverty in a range of different communities across Scotland. All programmes are framed around health and wellbeing, employability, inclusion or attainment – all key factors that can help support better outcomes for people
Aberdeen FC Community Trust will be running Dons Families Together, a health and wellbeing project for parents and children, helping them to make positive life choices. Their sessions will include physical activity and nutritional advice, while working with local partners to offer employability, financial and stress management support.
Big Hearts will be offering fully supported volunteering opportunities in the form of their new project, Big Hearts Journeys. The Tynecastle based charity will offer 30 vulnerable young people, aged 16-24 and living in poverty, the opportunity to build their employability skills, improve their confidence, and secure a positive destination through volunteering.
Dundee United Community Trust will be creating much-needed opportunities for adults with a range of disabilities, in a bid to reduce loneliness and social isolation. The peer-designed activities will create meaningful experiences for its participants and ultimately help to improve overall wellbeing.
Funding provided to Hibernian Community Foundation will allow them to run All Together Now, a project enabling them to employ a Ukrainian speaking activity worker to engage with Ukrainian refugees living in Edinburgh.
At Links Park, Montrose Community Trust is teaming up with a number of agencies to launch Free Kicks, a project which will address food insecurity while focusing on the overall health and wellbeing of people in Montrose. The programme will offer free street football activities while providing nourishing street food to children, young people and low-income families.
Partick Thistle Charitable Trust are using the funding from the SPFL Trust to run Mental Fitness, a 10-week programme incorporating various techniques, strategies and practices aimed at improving mental health, motivation, and overall quality of life.
In the southside of Glasgow, Queens Park will set up an out of hours study centre and run their programme, Play for Success. It will support children from Govanhill, which is one of Glasgow’s most deprived communities. The aim of this project is to improve attainment across a number of key areas, using sport as a hook to participation and engagement.
Our CEO, Nicky Reid, said “We are delighted to launch this programme with initial seed funding for seven community trusts across Scotland.
“Following the success of our Winter Support Fund, we wanted to continue to develop opportunities for community trusts to progress ideas and solutions that they believe will work locally.
“The SPFL Trust Innovation Fund is about enabling creative thinking and innovation, so that community trusts can demonstrate impact, and show that their ideas can work. That should in turn allow them to look at longer term funding solutions.”