CRIMINALS' CASH UP FOR GRABS

A pot of cash totalling around £1 million is available for eligible youth projects across Scotland. Jim Mather, MSP for Argyll & Bute . has welcomed an announcement fro his colleague Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill that a large sum of cash, confiscated from criminals, is being made available to be re-invested back into the community as part of the Scottish Government's "Cashback for Communities " initiative

Jim Mather said:

"The Cashback for Communities scheme utilises funding confiscated from criminal activity and makes it available to young peoples' projects across the country. The initiative is administered by Youthlink Scotland and guidance about qualification and applications for funding can be found at the website at www.youthlinkscotland.org

More than 270 projects have already benefited from participation and resulted in many of our young people being given the opportunity to try out new activities and new challenges. The huge majority of our young people are well behaved and a credit to their communities but there are too may getting involved in crime and antisocial behaviour. By making these opportunities available we are demonstrating in a practicable way that there is much more to life than petty offending and indulgence in drink and drugs. While Cashback for Communities carries obvious advantages for its young participants it also brings substantial benefits to the wider community.

The deadline for this particular tranche of awards is the 31st October 2009. The application procedure is not complicated and the Assessment Panel includes youngsters so we have funds being allocated by young people to young people.

I would urge those who feel that they may be eligible to make the necessary enquiries."