Demand for parish project funding outstrips supply, says Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland's General Assembly will hear next month that demand for parish development funding was twice as much as what was available for the first time ever this year.

The fund was set up in 2003, and since then just over £3m has been granted to help parish-based projects.

The increase in demand has led to the employment of additional staff, and the setting up of a Parish Development Fund team across the country.

The report from the fund's committee states that it was impossible to give applications the full amount they were seeking, but that the team tried to assist as many schemes as they could: "In each of the funding rounds in 2007 the amount of money requested was almost double the amount available.

"Faced with this dilemma the committee took the decision that it would prefer to continue offering funds to all projects which merit an award rather than prioritise some at the expense of others.

"This has, of course, meant that few projects, if any, were granted the level of funding they requested."

There was also a lot of emphasis placed on youth, and last September members of the committee went to the Youth Assembly in Dundee.

There was a workshop for young people to hear more about the fund, and they were asked to come up with their own ideas for funding projects. A panel of experts scrutinised the proposals, in a format similar to the TV programme "Dragon's Den".

Staff at the conference were positive about the outcome: "This was a very worthwhile exercise with the feedback from the discussions helping to inform the on-going work of the fund in relation to supporting youth work."

The team also reminds the Assembly of its core values, and the difference it has been making to individual lives and communities: "In a world increasingly dominated by statistics relating to outcomes, outputs, targets, and so on, it is easy to overlook the real stories of people whose lives have been transformed.

"It is important to remember that at the heart of all the projects which the PDF supports are individuals."