Written by Georgina Bowyer, UKSPF Grants Manager, Capital City Partnership
King’s Trust Scotland Awards 2026
The UKSPF team were pleased to attend the King’s Trust and TK Maxx Scotland Awards last week, held on 22 January 2026 at the Voco Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. The event celebrated seven individuals and recognised one community group for outstanding achievements in education, employment, enterprise, and social impact. The awards marked the charity’s 50th anniversary year and highlighted the 6,000+ young people supported by the King’s Trust Scotland in the last year alone. Congratulations to all the winners and we wish you well for the UK-wide awards taking place in the summer.
Success in Edinburgh
Through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) in Edinburgh, the King’s Trust has been supporting young people to find their first steps into employment or enterprise. The programmes on offer help young people to build skills and gain confidence and navigate pathways into work.
A recent Edinburgh success story that was shared with us focuses on Rhys, a young man who joined The King’s Trust Scotland’s Get Into Lifeguarding with Edinburgh Leisure programme. Rhys was unsure about his next steps after leaving school with National 4 qualifications, but with encouragement from his Careers Advisor, joined the programme. It aligned perfectly with his interests in swimming, fitness, and learning new skills.
Through the programme, Rhys developed lifeguarding and water safety skills; CPR and First Aid knowledge; and communication and interview confidence. He enjoyed the training and enjoyed working with others while building new skills. His main goal was to achieve the National Pool Lifeguarding Qualification (NPLQ)—a key requirement for future employment in the sector.
Rhys successfully completed his NPLQ and is now employed part-time with Edinburgh Leisure as a Leisure Attendant. He hopes to use this as a stepping stone toward returning to college in the future.
Rhys’ achievement reflects the meaningful impact that King’s Trust Scotland has on young people in Edinburgh and beyond. Whilst UK Shared Prosperity funding is coming to an end soon, the King’s Trust work in Edinburgh will continue thanks to alternative funding streams. To find out more about services offered in Edinburgh, you can visit the King’s Trust website here.
The City of Edinburgh Council, in partnership with NHS Lothian, Edinburgh College and Virgin Hotels will be hosting a number of online information sessions for this year’s intake for Project SEARCH.
Edinburgh Project SEARCH (EPS) provides employment and learning opportunities for young people with a disability.
Starting in August and lasting one college year, our interns will have the opportunity to:
A tutor and job coaches are based on-site to provide classroom learning and support.
Outcome results are very high with 60 to 100% of interns moving into paid jobs.
To be eligible for Project SEARCH, you must
To find out more
We are hosting information events to tell everyone what the programme is, how it works and how to apply. If you would like to attend, please use the link below to register and please share within your networks.
Edinburgh Project SEARCH 2026/27 Information Sessions
Our 2026/27 programme will begin in August.
Applications for Edinburgh Project SEARCH can be made through the link below:
Project Search SCQF 4 | Edinburgh College
You can see a video of the work our interns do at Project SEARCH on the link below:
Written by Georgina Bowyer and Jessie Colligan, Capital City Partnership
Christmas time is about coming together to share warmth, kindness, and hope with those who need it most. Across the Capital City Partnership networks, organisations work hard to assist the most vulnerable all year round, and we are pleased to highlight several of the Christmas campaigns for this year. These wonderful initiatives are just a few examples from our UK Shared Prosperity Fund network, which we know will bring comfort to many individuals and families in Edinburgh facing hardship during this festive season. A wider list compiled by our Community Wealth Building team for the City Region is available here.
Vintage Vibes: Transforming local lives
Over 12,000 older people in Edinburgh will have the TV as their main form of company this Christmas period. For hundreds of local over-60s, everything changed with one Vintage Vibes friendship. This Christmas, you can let someone know they matter – by writing one simple Christmas card to a local older person in Scotland’s capital. Visit the Vintage Vibes website here to find out more.
Make a difference this Christmas with Fresh Start
Fresh Start is an Edinburgh-based charity helping people who have been homeless to set up their new home and settle in their community. You can show your support for those experiencing hardship this festive season by donating to the Cookers for Christmas Appeal. Your donation will help support those who are emerging from homelessness by providing them with essential white goods, such as cookers, fridges/freezers and washing machines. Visit the Fresh Start Just Giving page to get involved.
Be a Secret Santa for a vulnerable child with Action for Children
Action for Children and Nationwide Building Society are working in partnership on the Secret Santa campaign. The magic of Christmas begins in childhood - it’s a time for children to feel loved and make memories that last a lifetime. But for too many children across the UK, Christmas is anything but magical. To help change that, you can become Secret Santa by visiting the Action for Children website and donating.
Empty Kitchens Full Hearts' Big Give Challenge
For one week only, every donation you make to Empty Kitchens Full Hearts will be match-funded — doubling your impact. Donate £20 today, and you’ll provide two full weeks of healthy meals and wraparound care for someone who needs support this winter. With your help, we can reach 300 people with warmth, nourishment, and vital care during the coldest months of the year. Match funding is available from 12 pm on December 2nd to 12 pm on December 9th, 2025. To have your gift doubled, simply donate through the Big Give campaign using the link.
Thank you for supporting these campaigns.
Written by Georgina Bowyer, UKSPF Grants Manager, Capital City Partnership
As well as ushering in falling leaves and the need for extra layers, October also marks the midpoint of the financial year and an important moment in the reporting cycle for those of us managing contracts and grants at Capital City Partnership. In terms of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, we are in the fourth year of the programme, which for most organisations means the third year of funding. The service delivery (revenue) side of UKSPF Edinburgh is a continuation of the previous work allowing for consistency and for organisations to build on what has been achieved since the start of the fund. On the other hand, under the capital (physical improvements) side of the fund, new projects have been selected given the start and finish nature of the previous pieces of work. This blog provides an update on the progress of UKSPF projects at this crucial review point of the financial year.
Under capital, a budget of £250,000 has been allocated towards community centre improvements in Edinburgh and the remaining capital funding has been awarded to projects who had applied to Edinburgh’s allocation of the Place Based Investment Programme (PBIP). This strand of Scottish Government funding has similar aims to UKSPF and was over-subscribed in Edinburgh. The seven projects selected for UKSPF funding include renovation works at Bellfield, which is a B-listed former church in Portobello, owned by Action Porty, a charitable community benefit society. This well-used community space will be further improved by removing fixed pews and installing a mezzanine floor at the bottom of the balcony to create more usable and flexible spaces within the building, increasing usage and conserving energy.
Similar projects are being carried out at the Spylaw Coach House in the Colinton area of Edinburgh, and at The Byre in Duddingston. Both are repurposing historic buildings to create attractive multi-purpose community spaces which will help to increase social connection and deliver health and wellbeing activities. A brand-new adventure playground will also be created in the Wester Hailes area of Edinburgh, designed in partnership with the local community and using natural materials to create an engaging play space for children from the surrounding area, which has particularly high levels of deprivation.
In this new financial year, the “supporting local business” projects continue to thrive. Business Gateway collaborated with Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce to support several local businesses to explore international trade and to build relationships in a new market by taking part in trade missions to Boston or China. Codebase recruited for this year’s Greentech cohort, offering 32 applicants places on the programme which began in early October. Through the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce programme, four companies submitted their B Impact Assessment to B Lab UK for certification, following another two Edinburgh businesses having recently achieved their B Corp certification.
Vintage Vibes, supported through the “Communities and Place” priority, celebrated ten years of activity with a vibrant campaign ‘Ten Years Bold’ which not only marks a decade of volunteers supporting older people through one-to-one befriending and group activities, but also underlines the empowering nature of the work in helping older people to feel themselves again and be part of the community. You can see some of the campaign materials here.
Edible Estates have made significant progress in transforming the previously derelict bowling green in Oxgangs into a large neighbourhood garden, as well as successfully supporting Oxgangs Community Gardeners to become their own registered charity. Empty Kitchens Full Hearts have completed the refurbishment of their packing hall floor and have been working in partnership with U-Evolve to facilitate weekly gardening sessions for young people struggling with their mental health.
The Multiply strand of work has continued this year, now under People and Skills, offering a suite of courses including Digital Skills and an “Our World and Numbers” course at the science museum Dynamic Earth. A total of 350 clients are newly engaged in employability services funded through UKSPF in this financial year, with organisations frequently working with partners and employers to achieve support people into positive destinations. For example, Edinburgh Women’s Aid ran an employability course in partnership with State Street bank, resulting in five participants being offered work, two returning to study, and one setting up her own businesses.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is due to close in March 2026 and will be replaced by the UK Government’s Pride in Place and Local Growth Fund initiatives. Local authorities across Scotland are waiting for further guidance on how these will be implemented, following which plans and processes for their own local delivery will need to be put in place. This leaves current UKSPF-funded projects vulnerable to loss of funding, and many will need to turn their attention to sourcing alternative funding possibilities in the second part of the financial year.
In the meantime, projects across all themes continue to deliver throughout and up until the end of March. We look forward to seeing the capital projects reach completion in the coming months, and to gathering the revenue projects together for a network event in November. To read more about UKSPF-funded projects, you can explore the webpages here.
Written by Georgina Bowyer, UKSPF Grants Manager, Capital City Partnership
The Edinburgh Poverty Commission has released a 2025 update on tackling poverty in Scotland’s capital. Five years after the original report “A Just Capital”, the Poverty Commission—working alongside End Poverty Edinburgh (EPE)—has reassessed progress toward the city’s 2030 anti-poverty goals.
The report was launched at an event on Friday 31 October, attended by Capital City Partnership staff, who welcomed the findings. Rona Hunter, Chief Executive Officer, chaired an expert panel that addressed questions from the audience.
The report highlights stagnating poverty levels and rising hardship linked to the housing crisis and pressure on voluntary services. Yet, positive developments include a decline in low pay, stronger social security, better income support, and more effective neighbourhood-level collaboration.
The Commission is calling for renewed political and civic commitment, sustained funding, and genuine cross-sector collaboration to invest in housing, education, fair work, and social care. With continued collective effort, the Commission believes that it remains possible to achieve Edinburgh’s 2030 vision of a poverty-free city. You can download the full 2025 Update report here.
On Monday 6 October, Capital City Partnership organised Stories of Change hosted by the National Library of Scotland, as part of the DataKirk Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit programme.
The event also formed part of CCP’s Employer Engagement Project for Ethnic Minorities (EEPEM), a citywide initiative dedicated to supporting fair recruitment, progression, and inclusive workforce development. The aim of Stories of Change was to raise awareness of the barriers faced by minority ethnic individuals in employment, celebrate resilience and ambition, and inspire action towards more equitable opportunities across sectors.
The event attracted participants from across the third, public, and private sectors, including senior managers, HR and recruitment professionals, line managers, and community service providers. The audience listened to powerful first-hand stories from ethnically diverse individuals building their lives and careers in Edinburgh, how they navigated the employability services, and what impact it had on their well-being and personhood.
Opening remarks were delivered by Amina Shah, CEO of the National Library of Scotland and Fash Fasoro, CEO of DataKirk, who both highlighted the importance of Scottish multi-ethnic heritage and the role of open public institutions in building an inclusive community for the future. Recorded stories will be available on our project website.
Then the event featured moving stories shared by Oshuare, Sana, Omar, Ankita and Olawale, each reflecting journeys of perseverance, growth, and belonging stories that resonated deeply with the audience in the room. All of the story tellers highlighted bright hopes for the future, despite challenges and set backs.
We have collected feedback from our audience and had overwhelmingly positive 67% response rate form our feedback survey. The audience described the stories as “powerful,” “motivating,” and “a reminder of resilience, intelligence, and capability in the face of barriers”. Participants described the event as inspiring, eye-opening, and deeply human, a reminder of the resilience and determination of ethnically diverse individuals building their lives and careers in Edinburgh.
Every respondent said the stories clearly showed the impact of employability support, and almost all reported that the event significantly increased their awareness of the barriers and opportunities faced by minority ethnic communities.
From the open-ended responses, several themes of moving forward stood out:
Equity and Inclusion: the need for fair opportunities across all sectors.
Policy Change: reforming restrictive eligibility and access criteria.
Cross-Sector Collaboration: stronger partnerships between employers, communities, and policymakers.
80% said they are likely to take action as a result — from rethinking policies to sharing insights within their organisations. Many attendees reflected on the importance of co-creation, partnership, and policy change, calling for fairer systems that value international experience and remove structural barriers to inclusion. As one respondent noted, “It can help only to the point where progress is stopped by inadequate policies” which is a call that reinforces why these conversations must continue.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined Stories of Change, from the storytellers who shared their journeys with honesty and courage, to the employers, practitioners, and community members who listened, reflected, and contributed to the conversation.
13th October 2025
Written by Georgina Bowyer, UKSPF Grants Manager
We're delighted to share a new film highlighting the impact of the new youth work and education building at Spartans Community Foundation.
The new building has been a success story for partnership working, with private and public investment contributing funds, including that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has played a part.
This film captures the journey of creating the £1.4 million youth work and education building in North Edinburgh. Through stories from young people, staff, and parents, it highlights the challenges faced, the opportunities now available, and the lasting impact this space will have in providing education, youth work, and support for future generations.
Want to know more about UKSPF funded Edinburgh projects? Visit our UKSPF webpage.
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Written by Georgina Bowyer, UKSPF Grants Manager, Capital City Partnership
Today we’re highlighting the ongoing importance of digital inclusion in the context of Challenge Poverty Week and today’s theme of Better Investment in Life’s Essentials. Like so many drivers of poverty, digital inclusion has been well understood and has had successful initiatives implemented over recent years - and yet the available solutions tend to ebb and flow according to funding and can be dependent on where you live. Despite rapid and continuous digital evolution at one end of the spectrum, there continues to be those who do not have access to the basic tools to complete essential tasks online – the latest data from Good Things Foundation has found that 7.9m adults across the UK lack basic digital skills.
Not having a suitable device or internet connection often places individuals at a significant disadvantage whether that is in managing finances and accessing the best rates on bills; keeping in touch with a child’s school and finding health information; or navigating public transport. At Capital City Partnership, where a lot of our work focuses on employability and skills, we frequently hear about how important digital access is for those looking for work or seeking better work. In today’s world, we rely on digital not only to produce CVs and write job applications, but also to build networks, access training opportunities and to source advice.
Whilst there is lots of positive work happening across the city, in recent months we have been aware that people in Edinburgh cannot always find the digital support that they need. That is why we have been working alongside colleagues in the Edinburgh Partnership to help bring together a Digital Inclusion Working Group. The aim of the group is to better understand the landscape in Edinburgh and to assess what might be required in order to ensure that every resident can access an appropriate digital device, adequate connectivity and the skills support that they need in order to carry out essential tasks safely.
We know that people need support across these different elements of digital inclusion and that it should not be difficult to find or navigate support, particularly given that people are often looking for support at stressful points in their lives. In addition, some best practice principles shared by experts on the group include that digital inclusion is best delivered by or with trusted partners in the community; that drop-in and ongoing support is required to help with maintenance issues or minor problems that can otherwise set someone back; and that support should start with the needs and interests of the individual to be most effective.
To find out more, we will shortly be issuing a survey open to anyone working on poverty prevention or alleviation in Edinburgh. The survey asks people about their experiences of supporting people with digital inclusion and/or referring people to other organisations. This will help to inform discussions and recommendations going forward.
If you would like to participate in the survey, or if you are interested in joining the Digital Inclusion Working Group in Edinburgh, please feel free to get in touch with me via ge*************@********************ip.org.
Work plays a huge role in all of our lives. It is where we spend much of our time, it shapes our routines, builds our skills, and brings us into contact with people who influence our journey. But work should be more than simply “a job.” It should be a place where people feel valued, supported, and fairly rewarded.
Fair pay and sustainable jobs should not be seen as a bonus, they should be the standard. Yet, for many, progressing at work or finding roles that fit their lives can feel out of reach. That is where Advance comes in.
Advance is a city-wide partnership funded by the City of Edinburgh Council, bringing together three organisations: Enable, Forth Sector, and The Action Group. Together, we provide a unique blend of employability and welfare rights support.
Enable and Forth Sector guide individuals through employability journeys, whether that is preparing for interviews, building confidence, or exploring new career paths. Meanwhile, The Action Group delivers welfare rights advice, ensuring that people have access to the right information and support to make informed choices.
By working hand in hand, these services empower people to take the next step in their career while also feeling secure in their wider circumstances.
Advance focuses on two key areas: in-work progression and retention.
Progression might mean exploring opportunities for better pay, more responsibility, or roles that offer stability and sustainability. For some, it is about taking the leap into management, and Advance can provide training in resilience and leadership to make that step feel possible. For others, it could be moving into a new sector, such as customer service, where they can transfer their skills into a fresh environment.
Retention support is just as important. Sometimes the key to thriving in work is ensuring that the role you are already in works well for you. Advance can help facilitate conversations between employees and employers, exploring reasonable adjustments or ways of working that ensure both sides feel heard and supported.
Looking for, applying to, and starting a new role can be overwhelming. Even knowing where to begin can feel daunting. Advance provides practical tools, from CV support to interview preparation, as well as ongoing encouragement to ensure people feel confident about their decisions.
The following examples have been anonymised, but reflect the real experiences of participants we have supported through Advance.
One individual had been working with Wingstop for some time but felt unsure about how to take the next step into management. Through engaging with Advance, they took part in resilience training and received tailored application and interview support. With this guidance, they progressed into a Team Leader role, gaining more responsibility and better pay in a workplace they already enjoyed being part of.
Another participant had been self-employed for several years but found the uncertainty of irregular income difficult to manage. With support from Advance, they were able to secure a permanent contract as a delivery driver with Iceland. This shift provided them with greater job security, consistent income, and the stability to plan for their future with confidence.
Advance also provides specialist welfare rights advice, which can be just as important for ensuring people feel secure and able to move forward. For example, one participant whose job was unexpectedly ending received a benefit check, guidance on Universal Credit and Scottish Child Payment, and advice around mental health support. This gave them a clearer picture of their entitlements and the confidence to plan ahead while searching for a new role.
Advance is about more than employability. It is about fairness, confidence, and helping people believe that the next step in their working life is possible. Everyone deserves a job that not only pays fairly but also supports growth and wellbeing.
If you are ready to think about what you want from your job, whether that is a step up, a shift to something new, or simply making your current role work better for you, Advance is here and in your corner.
Meg Wilson - Performance Manager, Enable Works
6th October 2025
Written by the End Poverty Edinburgh team at the Poverty Alliance.
The End Poverty Edinburgh citizen group will be holding their third annual citizen led event at the Grassmarket Community Project during Challenge Poverty Week on Wednesday, October 8th, 09:30-15:00.
This follows End Poverty Edinburgh’s previous events in 2023 and 2024, which were attended by many representatives from well-known organisations, elected councillors and the leader of Edinburgh Council. Like in previous years, the event will focus on important issues around poverty, identified and shared by those living with and with lived experience of poverty.
Specifically, we will focus on Marginalised Communities in the morning, and Prevention in the afternoon. Each section will feature a panel of relevant speakers. There will be opportunities for dialogue and networking, and lunch will be provided as will refreshments. We hope to bring together a room full of individuals from a variety of backgrounds, organisations and professions to maximise our impact together. We’ll share a full agenda nearer the date.
Please feel free to bring a friend or colleague, or pass to someone you’d like to attend on your behalf. If you would like to attend with a colleague, please share the registration link with them. (For capacity reasons, we ask each organisation to stick to a maximum of 2 colleagues) To register, please follow the link here.
Want to know more about UKSPF funded Edinburgh projects? Visit our UKSPF webpage.
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