Aberdeen Harbour Board chief executive Michelle Handforth (fifth from left) with CAF recipients.
Aberdeen Harbour Board has announced the recipients of its £30,000 Community Action Fund.
Three awards of £10,000 have been granted to the Fittie Community Development Trust, the Culter & District Pipe Band and the Middlefield Community Project.
Michelle Handforth, chief executive of Aberdeen Harbour Board, said the selected stakeholder organisations are “synonymous with the harbour’s guiding principal of creating prosperity for generations”.
Fittie Community Development Trust is a not-for-profit charity which is refurbishing the Gospel Hall in Fittie to make it fit for purpose as a community hall. Funding from the Harbour Board will meet the costs of a new entranceway to the hall. Pauline Brown, Chair of the Development Trust, believes that this sponsorship “is an opportunity to mark the longstanding, mutually dependant relationship between Fittie and Aberdeen Harbour”.
Founded in 1938, the Culter & District Pipe Band has more than 50 members. The band regularly competes in local and national competitions under the leadership of Pipe Major Grant Noble and Lead Drummer Chris Carter. Using funds from Aberdeen Harbour, the band has plans to restart a novice band for under 18s in the area and expand their successful teaching programme to young players.
The Middlefield Community Project will direct the Harbour’s funding towards wages for a mental health and youth worker for 12-26-year-olds in the area. The unique initiative will involve nine sessions throughout the week, spearheading the project’s response to health and wellbeing issues faced by young people.
Since the Harbour Board’s Community Action Fund began in 2014, more than half-a-million pounds has been donated to local charities and organisations, benefiting tens of thousands of people in the north-east. Alison Chandler, Funding and Business Planning officer for the Aberdeen Council for Voluntary Organisations (ACVO), recently commended the Harbour Board for its “courageous, direct approach to funding”.
Michelle Handforth added: “It is a privilege to support these organisations which make real improvements to many lives across the region. We hope that we are able to enhance their work and look forward to getting involved in their projects in the coming months.”