How our funds help
Over the past ten years, Hillcrest has distributed more than £1.7 million to 310 projects to help improve the lives of individuals and communities experiencing disadvantage all across Scotland.
These funds can be split into three areas: reducing isolation, tackling inequalities, and improving health and wellbeing.
Tackling Inequalities
Having to choose between heating or eating is a fact of life for many people in Scotland and bold action is needed to tackle inequalities. Hillcrest’s Energy Advice Team (HEAT) delivers support to thousands of households in Scotland.
Levels of fuel poverty are increasing and the Foundation is delighted to be able to support innovative projects like ‘Contact Heat’ which provides equipment like flasks, electric blankets and pressure cookers to help reduce energy bills.
Reducing Isolation
People with a disability were disproportionately affected by social isolation and loneliness before the Covid-19 pandemic, and lockdown restrictions mean this has increased alarmingly.
With support from the Hillcrest Foundation, the Futures Activities Hub in Dundee enhances people’s lives, reducing social exclusion and isolation while promoting access, participation and, above all, positive health and wellbeing.
Improving Health & Wellbeing
In 2021, 3.5 people in Scotland died from a drug-related death each day. Every single one –1295 in total – was a human being with dreams, aspirations, talent and potential. Each of them left a hole in the lives of those who loved them. They mattered.
The Foundation supports peer workers as we understand the value of lived experience of substance use and recovery, and encourages people with lived experience to get involved.
