The School Bank works to prevent and relieve child poverty in families experiencing financial hardship in West Lothian, particularly in areas of high deprivation. They supply school uniforms and other essential items deemed necessary to meet the cost of the school day.

Currently, the School Bank support all of the Craigshill primary schools with their core school uniform service. This new project would involve extending the existing service to provide casual clothing to young people up to 18 years. This would include a basic set of clothing, such as joggers, hoody, t-shirts and trainers. Depending on the age of the child, this would cost between £30-50 per child. If awarded £5,000, we could supply up to 150 clothing packs, depending on the number of primary age and secondary age young people who are referred (adult clothing is more expensive). We anticipate that this project would support families who are currently struggling to provide clothing/shoes for their children.

The Youth Action Project (YAP) is an established West Lothian wide Youth and Community based charitable organisation engaging young people aged 10-25 years who are isolated from mainstream youth services.

The YAP is applying for funds to enhance the productivity, improve the organisation and promotion and to increase the footfall of the Craigshill Community fridge facility. Craigshill Community Fridge in Riverside Community Wing, Craigshill, expanded hugely during the pandemic, with the YAP partnering with W.L Council and the Food Consortium to source, collect, pack and deliver more than 5000 food parcels throughout West Lothian to vulnerable households. Craigshill was one of the highest beneficiary areas.

The funding is required for staff costs dedicated to coordinate the community fridge effectively to promote the service through social media, leaflet production and liaison with appropriate agencies. The funding would assist the Community fridge facility to remain open, and also to grow to become more effective and accessible to the growing number of people needing such a facility.

Spark, in collaboration with Almond Housing Association, are applying for funding to deliver Craigshill’s first Story Festival to be held as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories.

This would consist of a week of children’s storytelling events from Monday 20th June, including an outdoor festival event on Saturday 25 June. At least 4 additional special story related events would also be coordinated during the school summer break. Spark aims to bring together those willing to share their stories to “Ignite the Spark”, particularly for the children of Craigshill and be the catalyst to a window of opportunities that they may not know or acknowledge is there for them to reach their potential. In the spirt of diversity and inclusion, the stories may be written, spoken, sung or in film.  The festival will introduce inspiring stories of careers, wellbeing, resilience and inclusion in various forms focusing primarily on children and offers opportunities for children and their families to engage in a range of activities.

West Lothian Youth Action Project are applying for funding to begin running a new activity club on Fridays for young people aged 10 and above from the Craigshill catchment area.

The club will be designed to meet the needs of the young people living in Craigshill. There are currently limited activities for young people to participate in, particularly on Fridays. The activities provided at the club will include table tennis, pool, football, athletics, arts and crafts, music and much more.

This club will be open to all, but families living close to the poverty line who often cannot afford fees for sports clubs will be targeted to ensure that all of the young people in the Craigshill catchment area have the opportunity to participate in these activities.