Examples of recent grants
Scottish Public Leader
Hamilton Passion Play
Clay Pits Creation Care Education Project
Sanctuary First
Reach4Reality
Causeway Prospects Scotland
Scottish Public Leader
Evangelical Alliance Scotland launched the Scottish Public Leader project, a nine month programme to equip young leaders to bring lasting change to Scotland through upholding Christian values in their place of influence.
The programme took in eighteen participants and helped them explore leadership issues of character, culture, calling, competency, and communication, all within a framework of biblical Christian leadership. These participants were from many areas of Scottish public life, including film makers, financial advisors, teachers, lawyers and entrepreneurs.
Read more about the project at https://thepublicleader.com/.
Hamilton Passion Play
Hamiltion Churches worked together to stage stage Lanarkshire’s first Passion Play in the heart of Hamilton. Featured in local and national news, the event was staged over several nights during Holy Week. Each night several hundred people watched the performance.
A taste of the play can be seen in the video here or at https://vimeo.com/213514990:
Many of those who watched the play felt that it helped them to engage with the Easter story in a different way. Some of their comments were
“Very emotional as the story unfolded day by day. Especially the Last Supper.”
“Great to see the churches working in unity and looking at new ways to engage and work together and involve/engage local community.”
“A truly memorable, moving experience. Felt we were there, walked with Christ and were part of it.”
Clay Pits Creation Care Education Project
Based in Possilpark, Glasgow, this partnership project aimed to develop materials on the subject of Creation Care to engage local young people with the environment and the church. The lessons are designed to draw children closer to God through their local environment and green space. They also ran activity days teaching children about the local plant, insect and bird life through creative and interactive activities.
The Clay Community Church has since grown in its capacity and confidence in leading creation care activities and using environmental projects as a means to improve the Possilpark community, and to build relationships with children and their families.
Sanctuary First
With the strap line “Your daily walk with God”, the Sanctury First website aims to encourage worshippers daily through prayers, scripture readings and video podcasts. These resources are available to all on the website covering a wide range of seasons, topics and themes.
To make this worship available easily and conveniently to the ever increasing number of mobile device users, a grant was given which allowed the development of a smartphone and tablet app to access the website content.
The app has been available since January 2014 and is used by hundreds of people to enhance their spiritual life in a way which matches their digital lifestyles.
Sanctury First can be accessed at www.sanctuaryfirst.org.uk, and the apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone can be downloaded now:
Reach4Reality
Reach4Reality provides individually tailored breaks for young people with social communication difficulties. 1:1 support for each participant is key to tailoring the activities to meet their needs. A grant contributed to the volunteers’ costs while attending. The project exceeded its goals, involving 25 young people in overnight, day and weekend activities.
Feedback from participants and parents was very positive:
“The difference in my son is fantastic. This is the only time he has been away from home and his confidence has improved such a lot. He has done so many things when he has been on trips, it is great.”
“The best thing was making new friends.”
“Reach4Reality are the only people I have felt happy and confident to let my son stay overnight with. And it let me and my husband spend quality time with family. It has made such a big difference, I cannot put it into words.”
Find out more at reach4reality.org.uk.
Causeway Prospects Scotland
Prospects is a Christian organisation for people with learning difficulties and their families. A grant was given to help fund production of a short DVD giving people with learning disabilities opportunity to share their faith using a variety of communication methods. The film offered a great opportunity for people with learning difficulties to have their voices heard. Those who took an active role in the production enjoyed the experience immensely and grew in confidence.
Watch the video here or at vimeo.com/100582858:
Find out more at www.prospects.org.uk.
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