Great news as The Foyer is saved!

Good news as the Foyer announce emergency funding has saved them from closing.

The fund will provide support to community organisations which provide essential services who have been impacted by the loss of wind farm generated income.

Western Isles Foyer, as one of the charities impacted, will be receiving the full £50,000 of funding, in time to save the service from closure, to compensate for the loss of the Point and Sandwick Trust (PST) grant income which was due to be received.

Rebecca Mahony, Western Isles Foyer Project Leader, said: “We would like to express our thanks to all at the Comhairle and SSEN who have been working so hard to establish this fund to help out affected organisations.

Comhairle Leader, Roddie Mackay, said: “The Comhairle is keenly aware of the important role that the Western Isles Foyer provides to the local community. We were aware that they were at crisis point and are very pleased to have been able to support the service in this manner.

“We now have a schedule from all the community generators showing the community bodies that they are supporting. We are assessing that schedule and will shortly be welcoming applications from the impacted bodies. We are targeting the fund on the most vulnerable groups in the community and the priority will be to support these groups in the first instance. I am very pleased with the quick turnaround from establishing the fund on Monday to paying out the first grant.”

Rebecca continued: “Thank you to the community who have been supporting us over the last couple of weeks to save this essential service for young people. The Foyer staff team have been overwhelmed by the strength of support and all the kind messages from people in our community.

“Huge thank you to everyone who donated to our JustGiving crowdfunding appeal. It’s absolutely wonderful to have raised £5,335 in less than a week, and goes to show that community spirit is alive and well even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We would like to utilise the money raised via the Crowdfunding appeal to set up a fund to provide financial assistance to young people supported by Foyer to help with the cost of setting up home.”