Wind farm funding will help Caithness CAB deal with increase in demand
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A Caithness wind farm fund has provided support to two community groups as part of the Covid-19 response.
Baillie Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund awarded more than £5000 to Caithness Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and £350 to Thurso Football Academy.
The CAB money will go towards the costs of personal protective equipment and changes to the premises in Thurso and Wick to enable staff to return to supporting clients face-to-face, both in the offices and through home visits.
Caithness CAB manager Isobel Mackay said: “Covid-19 has had a real impact on many of the most vulnerable in our community and we have been extremely busy providing support to clients via telephone and email to help them deal with debt, get referrals to food banks, and access Universal Credit.
“This has been made harder due to many of our volunteers being unable to offer support at this time, and the need for our staff to work from home and not meet with clients face-to-face, in line with Scottish Government guidelines.
“We are expecting a huge increase in clients over the coming months as people deal with employment law concerns, increased energy costs and mental health issues as a result of the pandemic.
This funding will go a long way towards helping us get back up and running at full capacity at a time when the services we have to offer are most needed.”
Caithness CAB delivers free, confidential, impartial and independent advice to the citizens of Caithness and north Sutherland, assisting around 4500 people per year with a range of issues including access to welfare benefits, debt, housing and access to legal services.
The £350 award to Thurso Football Academy will support its efforts to distribute footballs and water bottles to local youngsters as part of the Keep Scotland Active initiative. The funding also helped the academy to print a training drills booklet to allow children aged eight and under to play various themed games with their parents in their gardens.
Alyn Gunn, head of coaching at Thurso Football Academy, said: “Helping young people keep fit and healthy has always been the goal of Thurso Football Academy. This has been difficult in recent months, with the pandemic resulting in children not being able to access play parks and school facilities, as well as not being able to meet up and play with their friends.
“The funding provided by Baillie Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund will enable us to provide resources to help children keep active, and to support parents with some activities to entertain their children at this difficult time.”
The academy specialises in the age group four to six years, although its football camps are aimed at children from four up to 15.
The Baillie fund continues to seek expressions of interest from groups across Caithness that require additional support or funding to enable them to carry out community support activities during the pandemic. This funding is intended to be as fast and flexible as possible, as the fund operators recognise that the needs of communities and the organisations supporting them are changing regularly.
Groups interested in applying are invited to contact the fund at enquiries@bailliecommunityfund.org.uk to give a brief outline of their proposal and an estimate of their funding requirement. The fund team will then process these as quickly as possible and invite formal applications to support eligible projects.
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