Youth projects to benefit from £5m lottery funding

The money is being shared between seven projects that will increase preventative work with young people on issues such as mental health, homelessness, relationships and crime.

Midlothian Council is among the beneficiaries. Working with NHS Lothian, youth group Midlothian Youth Platform and voluntary sector groups, the council plans to use its £836,000 grant to kickstart a five-year project to increase efforts to prevent children and young people experiencing mental health crises.

"We are delighted to have been successful in securing funding for children and young people's mental health and wellbeing from the Big Lottery Fund," said Mary Smith, director of education, communities and economy at Midlothian Council.

"Midlothian's young people have been campaigning for this so it's great that local partners and the Big Lottery Fund have listened."

Meanwhile Action for Children will use its £730,207 grant to explore ways to prevent homelessness among young people in West Dunbartonshire and South Lanarkshire Council plans to spend its £742,146 of funding on piloting new ways to steer young people away from crime.

Aberdeen Foyer will be using its £824,567 share of the money to support young people by offering careers advice and helping them to make informed choices about health, relationships, housing and finances.

In Glasgow, the money will help Barnardo's Scotland develop ways to reduce the number of children and young people requiring social work intervention. Part of its £797,968 grant will be used to encourage more sharing of knowledge between statutory and voluntary sector services.

The largest of the grants has gone to Renfrewshire Council and the Dartington Service Design Lab. Their £1m grant will see change specialists brought into the council to identify ways to move more resources into early support for children and young people with poor emotional health.

The final beneficiary is Shetland Islands Council and Police Scotland, which will be using their £321,500 to do more preventative work with children, young people and families across the islands.

The £5.2m has come from the Big Lottery Fund Scotland's Early Action System Change programme which supports projects that bring the public and voluntary sectors together to redesign services in ways that increase the focus on preventative work. The programme offers grants of up to £1m.