The McCarthy Stone Foundation has given the North Berwick Coastal Connections charity a welcome boost with a £1000 grant after the charity was nominated by a local volunteer.
In the charity’s first two years they have helped more than 80 socially isolated adults connect into local networks, new friendships, and purposeful activity. Alongside social prescribing and community referrals, new Covid-response services have been added, and the charity is seeking to further expand to introduce peer support, specialist volunteer training, and new partnerships. Core activities, such as the Scone Café, workshops, speakers, and intergenerational meet ups are all now returning with the easing of restrictions.
The £1000 unrestricted grant from the McCarthy Stone Foundation will support the charity’s plans to develop their services in the coming months, supporting key members of staff and volunteers to cope with the increasing demand on the charity’s services.
Carol Stobie of North Berwick Coastal Connections said: “we are thrilled and honoured we are to receive this award from the McCarthy Stone Foundation. It means so much to hear that we were nominated by one of our much-loved Community Connections volunteers, and that it’s an award for the whole of the UK, we had no idea, and are quite overwhelmed! The award is enormously heartening and makes us feel we have real hope of developing our work into the future”
The McCarthy Stone Foundation is the independent, registered charity of the UK’s leading developer and manager of retirement communities, McCarthy Stone, which has a development in North Berwick, Tantallon Court. It aims to build long-term partnerships with charities and organisations who support the wellbeing of older people, the educational needs of young people and the urban regeneration of communities by providing much-needed financial grants, volunteers, and other resources.
Graeme Marsh, Foundation Manager at the McCarthy Stone Foundation, said: “We had many compelling nominations from across our communities, but our trustees felt that North Berwick Coastal Connections was the perfect example of a community-led charity making a real impact in their local area and were delighted to award them the £1000 grant”
Those interested in finding out more about the McCarthy Stone Foundation are invited to visit https://mccarthyandstonefoundation.org.