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The Scottish Government has provided funding to Women’s Aid East and Midlothian through the Third Sector Homelessness Fund and the Delivering Equally Safe Fund.

Women’s Aid East and Midlothian was funded through the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Homelessness Fund between 2021 and 2023. The objectives of Women’s Aid East and Midlothian's funding in 2022-23 was to:

• Deliver rapid access, permanent housing for women and children with complex needs and provide intensive and flexible support.
• Promote and increase the use of trauma-informed responses throughout Scotland for women and children experiencing domestic abuse.
• Prevent women and children experiencing domestic abuse from homelessness by implementing Housing first as a preventative approach.

Since October 2021, Women’s Aid East and Midlothian have been funded through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, which will run until March 2025. The objectives of the fund are:

• Women and children affected by violence are identified (early)
• Women and children’s safety needs are met
• Women and children’s wider wellbeing needs are met
• Fewer people adhere to gender stereotypes
• People have increased understanding of all forms of VAWG (causes, consequences, and appropriate responses)
• Power, decision-making and material resources are distributed more equally between men and women.
• Tolerance of VAWG is reduced and people are more likely to recognise and challenge it
• Perpetrators are identified early
• Perpetrators are supported to change their behaviour
• Perpetrators are sanctioned / held to account
• Violence against women and girls is reduced / eradicated
• Negative impacts on women and children who have been affected by violence are reduced / eradicated

Additionally, Women’s Aid East and Midlothian received indirect funding through the 100 Days (Covid emergency) funding. In 2021, the Scottish Government awarded £2,250,000 of funding over three years to Scottish Women’s Aid through the 100 Days (Covid emergency) funding. The funding was provided to frontline services for women and girls affected by gender-based violence to deal with additional pressures that occurred during the pandemic. Scottish Women’s Aid divided the funding amongst local Women’s Aid organisations, including Women’s Aid East and Midlothian.

The objectives of the 100 days (Covid emergency) funding were:

• fund additional staff to respond to an increase in demand from victims of abuse for support services
• improvements to organisations’ IT and digital resource
• additional training to allow services to be augmented so that people could quickly and easily access help.

The Scottish Government did not provide any funding directly to Relationships Scotland Dumfries & Galloway in 2022.

Relationships Scotland operate a network of 21 member services across Scotland, including Relationships Scotland Dumfries & Galloway.

In 2022, the Scottish Government provided Relationships Scotland with core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund.

Scottish Government provide direct funding to Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs. The objectives for delivery during 2022-23 through this funding are as follows:

Alcohol Focus Scotland’s objectives as set out in their grant letter for 2022-23 were:

• Advocate for the continuation and optimisation of minimum unit pricing in Scotland
• Build community capacity to engage in the licensing process
• Improve the accessibility and effectiveness of the licensing process
• Encourage strategic action to reduce the availability of alcohol
• Build support for controls on alcohol marketing as recommended by the Expert Network.
• Engage with communities of interest to explore and publicise experiences of alcohol marketing
• Expand the evidence base and our policy advocacy work to protect children and young people from the impact of alcohol
• Increase awareness of the impact of alcohol on children and young people
• Build capacity of practitioners to identify and work with children and young people
• Improve knowledge of alcohol and understanding of risks
• Build capacity of practitioners to identify and work with children and young people
• Support the routinisation of Alcohol Death Reviews, and the sharing of knowledge from them, across Scotland
• Support interventions to reduce alcohol-related deaths

Fair Deal was awarded £35,270 from the Scottish Government’s Wellbeing Fund in 2021-22. The £50m Wellbeing Fund was part of a £350m package of emergency community support announced in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wellbeing Fund was managed by a partnership including Scottish Government, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Corra Foundation, Inspiring Scotland, and the Hunter Foundation, with support from Scotland's 32 third sector interfaces. Information relating to Fair Deal’s application is held by the Corra Foundation.

The Scottish Women's Convention was awarded funding of £196,666 per annum for the period from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2024 from the Scottish Government Equality and Human Rights Fund. This is a competitive fund, administered by Inspiring Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government which aims to embed and mainstream equality and human rights within policy and practice in Scotland. While we do not specifically set objectives for the funding to the Scottish Women's Convention, we do set the following outcomes for the Equality and Human Rights Fund:

• People have greater access to their human rights and how to access them.
• People with protected characteristics have increased access to remedy where their rights have not been upheld.
• People with protected characteristics have increased participation in public life.
• People with protected characteristics have increased influence in decisions that affect them.
• The Scottish Government has better access to data and depth of information about the experience of people with protected characteristics.
• Actors in civil society increasingly use Scotland's domestic and international E&HR framework to influence and effect change.
• The experience of people with protected characteristics is increasingly used to inform the policy and practice of public bodies.
• Public services increasingly embed equality and human rights in their strategic planning and their day-to-day functions.

As part of the assessment process, organisations applying for funding were invited to demonstrate how their proposed activities would deliver the fund outcomes. Those organisations awarded funding, including the Scottish Women's Convention, report on their activities and how these contribute to the fund outcomes every 6 months.

The Children’s Parliament delivers objectives from two Scottish Government funding streams: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Implementation Programme; and the Children Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities fund (CYPFEIF & ALEC).

UNCRC Implementation Programme funding objectives for 2022-23:

• Empower children to be heard and to influence policy making
• Support duty bearers to build knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver children’s human rights
• Raise awareness of children’s human rights among children and wider society
  

CYPFEI & ALEC funding objectives set for 2022-23:

• Children have improved knowledge and understanding of their human rights and increased opportunities to participate in democratic processes
• Public bodies increase knowledge and understanding about the needs and concerns of children and use this to make public services more responsive to children's needs
• Children's Parliament extends the reach and influence of children voices across Scotland and internationally

The Scottish Government allocated £281,606 to the Cairngorms Trust from the 20220-23 Rural Community Led Local Development (CLLD) fund.

The objectives of the funding were; 

• Rural communities will have the opportunity to try out different approaches to local community development;
• Groups and organisations will build connections with the LAG network and the business sector;
• Rural groups and organisations will work in partnership to make positive changes in their communities;
• A body of evidence, insights and learning will be collated to help inform ongoing rural Community Led Local Development policy and programmes. 

No other funding was provided to the Cairngorms Trust directly from Scottish Government in the 2022-23 financial year.

During Phase 5 of the CashBack for Communities (CashBack) programme (2020 – 2023), funding was awarded to the Scottish Professional Football League Trust (SPFL Trust). Their ‘Off the Bench’ project worked to provide young people in need of support with opportunities to access education, employment and build better futures.

The SPFL Trust provided onward funding to the Big Hearts Community Trust to support 23 young people in 2022. The main objectives set for Phase 5 CashBack projects were to:

• Support people, families and communities most affected by crime

• Support those most at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending or reoffending into positive destinations

• Support young people most at risk of entering the justice system

• Provide intergenerational support for parents, families and children impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences

All CashBack projects are evaluated against their objectives. The independent evaluation of Phase 5 of the CashBack for Communities programme is due to be published by December 2023.

The Scottish Government did not provide any funding directly to Avenue Confidential in 2022.

Relationships Scotland operate a network of 21 Member Services across Scotland, including Avenue Confidential (known as Avenue).

In 2022, the Scottish Government provided Relationships Scotland with core funding via the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning & Empowering Communities third sector fund; and grant funding to provide child contact services.