Rural Direct to help communities access funding

If your community wants to refurbish your village hall, develop new local services or come up with a long-term plan for community development, then a new service run by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Crofters Commission can help you make the most of the funding programmes that are out there.

The Rural Direct service will offer advice, support and technical expertise to help rural community access funding including the new Rural Priorities scheme. Rural Direct is a free service available to constituted community groups in rural areas throughout Scotland. The Crofters Commission are delivering the scheme in the Crofting Counties and the SCVO are delivering the service in the rest of Scotland. You can contact the service by calling 0845 838 8598. Calls will be charged at local rate. You can also email your query to ruraldirect@scvo.org.uk.

Rural Direct won't write applications for you, but they will help your community group with the applications process to programmes such as Rural Priorities, Big Lottery Fund, Climate Challenge Fund and more.

If you're applying for Scotland Rural Development Funding, Rural Direct can help you in a range of ways including deciding whether to opt for LEADER or Rural Priorities, helping you get a Business Reference Number for Rural Priorities, helping you submit your online Rural Priorities application even if you don't have a computer or a broadband connection.

They will also help you understand the range of other funding opportunities available and to write the best possible funding applications. You can read more about Rural Direct and how it could help your rural community by downloading the Rural Direct leaflet from our documents library.