Two Fife-based organisations are celebrating this week with the news of a grant award of £26,000 as part of the People’s Postcode Lottery’s Dream Fund.

The Ecology Centre is partnering with the Kingdom Housing Association in a project to create a mobile outdoor classroom which will visit school pupils across Fife, Edinburgh and Tayside.

The overriding aim of the project is to inspire pupils to learn about climate change and their local environment using hands-on play in an outdoor setting. The mobile trailer itself will feature interactive displays, solar powered cars and horticultural activities.

Andrew McDaniel from Kingdom Housing Association said: "We are very excited to be working with The Ecology Centre to deliver this project which will make a real difference to more than 4,300 children and help them to understand more about climate change and how their actions can make a real difference."

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People’s Postcode Lottery launched the Dream Fund last year and with it introduced a brand new way of funding across Scotland. Seeking to encourage charities and organisations to join together for the first time to deliver a large scale ‘dream’ project, the funding is supported entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Andrew continued: "Kingdom Housing Association and The Ecology Centre have been working in partnership on various educational and employability projects over the last few years and share a passion for encouraging our young people to be the environmental ambassadors of the future."

The partnership had applied for over £50,000 to help make their mobile outdoor classroom dream a reality. Eight projects made the shortlist in total and the winners were announced on Tuesday 31st January at the Lottery’s annual Charity Gala, held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The Lottery also announced that the players have so far raised over £16.3million for charities across Great Britain, and presented the 14 charity beneficiaries with their cheques for funds raised in 2011.

Jo Bucci, Managing Director of People’s Postcode Lottery said: "Once again we have been overwhelmed by our winning projects. We are proud that, at a time when funding opportunities are becoming increasingly thin, we are, thanks to our growing number of players, able to offer another new opportunity for the sector."

(GK)