The Older People Services Project will continue with its focus on working closely with older people, their families and community groups to help them to learn about and access a range of vital benefits and services to which they are entitled.

The project has been granted an award of £336,893 towards the cost of running the project for three years, with the ongoing support of the three housing associations. The project, which has received the money from the Big Lottery, will employ two multi-lingual staff to work directly with older people.

Big Lottery Fund Scotland chair, Maureen McGinn, said: “I am delighted that Trust, Hanover and Bield Housing Associations have been successful in securing a Big Lottery Fund grant. The funding will make a big difference where it is needed most and I wish them every success as it goes on to develop and expand its project for the benefit of their local community.”

Rohini Sharma Joshi, Trust’s equalities manager, who will be managing this project on behalf of Trust, Hanover and Bield, said: “We are to have funding from the Big Lottery to continue our work with ethnic minority older people in Scotland.

“The Older People Services Development project has a strong track record for delivering tangible improvements in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable older people from black and minority ethnic communities. This new funding will enable us to transform the lives of many more older people in Scotland for the better.”

She added: “The project will set up an Ethnic Minority Older People Forum and carry out research on the changing needs of ethnic minority older people in Scotland.”

The Older People Services Project has already achieved considerable success in the eight years since it was founded, outperforming its original targets, both in terms of the numbers of people it has helped across Scotland and also in the value of the entitlements it has raised on behalf of people it has assisted.