On-demand: Transport Grants Webinar

Please see below typed answers to the questions that we received during our Transport Grants Webinar.

Question: When you talked about community participation, you mentioned you are interested to know how applicants include people from diverse communities. What happens if you are working in a deprived area where the majority of people are White Scottish?

Answer: We want organisations who apply for a Transport Grant to show how they involve their community in their organisation, for example on the Board or through volunteering; and that they listen to their community and respond to their needs. By community, we mean either a geographic community or a community of interest (a group of people with shared experiences). We are also interested to know how applicant organisations include people from diverse communities (for example disabled people or people experiencing racial inequity) and remove barriers to their participation. Whatever the make-up of your community, the principle here is about ensuring people who may be more marginalised are able to find out about and access your services, and become involved within the organisation. We’d be interested to know how you reach out to these groups and remove barriers to participation and access.  

Question: Is the Emotional Wellbeing and Relationships theme mentioned on the website being considered at the moment for this fund?

Answer: We will be launching a fourth funding theme later this year, following on from our previous Emotional Wellbeing and Relationships theme, with a sharper focus aligned to the aims of our strategy. Please sign up to our mailing list to receive details of this when they become available.

Question: You mention you won’t cover the costs of school transport. As a youth work agency, we work in partnership with local schools and often undertake groups which involve young people in poverty during the school day. We also pick children up from schools and bring them to our service. Would this be eligible for funding?

Answer: Yes, we could potentially consider this type of work, as long as the services you deliver are not part of the curriculum. By school transport, we mean transport to and from school that is normally provided by the local authority.

We could potentially consider the costs of transporting children and young people to and from your service, as it is removing the barrier of transport/costs for participants. We can't provide funding to replace the statutory provision of school transport.

Question: Are vehicle running costs like MOT, servicing, insurance, general repairs etc classed as eligible vehicle running costs?

Answer: Yes, these could be considered as transport-associated running costs.

Question: What have been the success rates in applying to previous funds and where do you feel applicants fall short?

Answer: Our average success rate across all our Funds last financial year (Wee, Small, Large and Vehicle Grants) was 79%. The most common decline reason is the focus of the organisation's work/the funding request not being strongly aligned with addressing poverty and trauma for people and communities. We publish our success rate after each of our funding decision meetings, along with our award announcements.