Grants of up to £5k to be made available for small groups to tackle inequality 

Shetland Charitable Trust chairman Andrew Cooper. 

Small community groups will be able to apply for grants of up to £5,000 to help reduce inequality and social exclusion in island life.

Shetland Charitable Trust agreed the new scheme at its meeting today (Thursday) to help smaller organisations focussing on specialist needs.

Funding could be used to assist with activities, such as providing transport or reimbursing volunteer expenses.

The scheme will launch in December and run each year until 2025 as part of the five-year plan agreed by the trust last year.

The Small Grants Scheme is open to constituted community groups with a turnover of less than £50,000 a year which undertake activities in the fields of social care and welfare, arts and culture, heritage and the environment or sport and recreation.

Trust chairman Andrew Cooper said the SCT wanted to help smaller groups that “contribute so much to our communities.”