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Planning a community-led project - 3 inspiring examples

10 April 2026

When applying for our funding in Scotland, we want you to think about how your project can bring out the best in your communities. A project that helps people reach their potential through shared knowledge, skills, and experience.

If you’re applying for our Community Action, Fairer Life Chances or Young Start programmes, we’re particularly interested in understanding how your project will:

  • involve the people and communities you support in shaping how it’s developed, delivered and led

  • use your community's existing skills and interests

  • be well connected with other services that support your community

In this blog, we'll show 3 projects that have meaningfully involved their community.

A team from the Thriving Survivors project smiling at the camera, some wearing the purple Thriving Survivors hoodies.

1. Thriving Survivors, Glasgow

Thriving Survivors were awarded  £197,280 of National Lottery funding for their project that provides support for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. 

The project’s work is led by people with lived experience, which includes:

  • using mentors with lived experience

  • regular evaluations

  • a lived-experience advisory group, made up of people who have benefited from the project’s support

What we like about this project

When I spoke to the group about involving survivors, they made the distinction between their lived experience as workers and the living experience of people currently living through this. They were articulate in their knowledge that their lived experience could be different from someone going through that today.

Daniel McCallum - Funding Officer

Group of young people standing in shallow coastal water surrounded by hills, taking part in an outdoor activity together.

2. Fersands and Fountain Community Project, Aberdeenshire

Fersands and Fountain Community Project was awarded £101,887 of Young Start funding to deliver a wide range of youth-led activities from their base in Woodside, Aberdeen.

The project is led by a youth committee, which oversees all decisions and are involved in managing, developing, supporting and monitoring youth work services. Annual community events bring residents together to review progress and share ideas. 

What we like about this project

This project very much meets what we aim for in Young Start. The young people design the work, they deliver many aspects of the work and, importantly, they manage it.

David Lamont - Funding Officer

Five smiling members of the Active Seniors project on the open deck area of a small canal boat, with greenery and water visible alongside them.

3. Active Seniors, Glasgow

Active Seniors were awarded £63,815 of National Lottery funding to tackle isolation and loneliness through various social activities in the Knightswood area of Glasgow. These activities have included:

  • bus trips

  • cinema trips

  • walking clubs

  • karaoke nights

  • cultural trips

The project is run by a volunteer committee of older people. Quarterly meetings also allow all members to give feedback and suggest new ideas.

What we like about this project

This organisation is grassroots, beginning with a lot of volunteers who saw a lack of activities for themselves and started doing this to bring people together. They have built mechanisms to be driven by the community and the community has really responded – they have huge engagement.

Daniel McCallum - Funding Officer

Planning your own project

To help you plan your project, read our other blogs:

Learn more about our funding in Scotland.