The Senior Centre Castlemilk has received £5,000 to fund a series of evening ceramics and craft classes for its members in Castlemilk, Glasgow.
The donation was provided by the Santander Foundation, which offers Discovery Grants to UK registered charities for projects that help disadvantaged people in local communities.
The Senior Centre describes itself as a ‘youth club for over 60’s’, providing a recreational facility for its members to attend, where they can socialise with like-minded older adults who reside within Castlemilk and the surrounding areas.
The grant will be used to provide a series of ceramics and craft evening classes at which members can meet up with friends and learn new skills. The idea of these evening classes came about as a result of a suggestion by a group of members and volunteers who were looking for something which could break up long evenings spent at home.
The Senior Centre aims to run the classes to help tackle isolation by extending its opening hours to encourage existing and potential members to socialise while participating in a creative evening of crafts and ceramics sessions.
Melanie O’Donnell, Manager at The Senior Centre said: “We are delighted to receive this grant from the Santander Foundation as we can now open our Centre on an evening, enabling members to learn new skills and meet up with their friends and colleagues in a safe, warm and welcoming environment which really is a home away from home.”
Derek Hancock, Branch Manager at Santander’s Glasgow branch, said: “The Santander Foundation makes hundreds of donations every year to good causes throughout the UK. We are committed to playing a key part in the community and we are delighted to be supporting The Senior Centre Castlemilk, and hope the donation makes a real difference to local people.”
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Notes to Editors:
Media Contact
Leonora Burtenshaw at Santander
Email: leonora.burtenshaw@santander.co.uk Tel: 020 7756 4543
About The Senior Centre Castlemilk.
The charity’s main objective is to offer and promote social opportunities for the residents of Castlemilk and its surrounding areas. The Senior Centre is a 'youth club for the over 60’s’ with the aim to ensure that more independent older adults within the community can continue to live at home and improve their social connections and relationships with their peers.
The Senior Centre's mission statement is:
“To provide an accessible facility in which we will promote the social inclusion of elderly people in the Castlemilk area, by reducing isolation, poverty, poor mental and physical health and poor diet, and by providing and promoting opportunities for older people to live an active, fulfilling and useful life within their community."
For more information please visit: www.theseniorcentre.co.uk
Santander Foundation
The Santander Foundation is at the heart of the Bank’s community activities, providing grants to small charities and social enterprises working with disadvantaged people to fund skills, knowledge and innovation projects across the UK. Discovery Grants of up to £5,000 are available to support three types of activity:
- Explorer: improving people’s knowledge
- Transformer: supporting skills and experience
- Changemaker: innovative solutions to social challenges
Over the last five years, the Santander Foundation has provided £26 million in funding to 13,914 UK charities through Discovery Grants and Staff Matched Donations. For more information please visit: www.santanderfoundation.org.uk
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 31 March 2018, the bank has c19,500 employees. It serves around 14 million active customers, via a nationwide branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking; and 64 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.