Pride in Moray is a LGBTQ+ charity based in Moray who provide not only an annual Pride event, but also outreach services to the LGBTQ+ community in mainly rural areas. Our core aim is to promote equality, diversity and advances in education, in order to eliminate discrimination against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and others (LGBTQ+) Community.

The Pride event allows people to come together to show solidarity and support one another, to be visible and accepted as part of the wider community. It allows the community as a whole to get involved in celebrating and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, raising awareness and understanding of the issues facing Moray.

With the help of the funding offered by the Berry Burn Community Fund, Moray School Bank were able to support 165 children across the Berry Burn Community Fund area in 2023/24 by providing school uniform and warm winter items, allowing them to attend school, happy, confident and ready to learn.

The Roseisle Hall Trustees planned to replace a forty-year-old kitchen and make the existing space a bright, warm and welcoming area that could be used not only as a kitchen, but also as a meeting place for meetings, community groups and lets. Funding from the Berry Burn Community Fund and others allowed us to put in place a six-week project that insulated the room, built a store cupboard, and installed a new kitchen with energy saving appliances and a non-slip floor. For the Roseisle residents this means we now have a community space that can be enjoyed for many years to come.

The Timeline of Forres is an innovative animated video by the team behind popular children’s book Fantastic Forres. This is a free educational resource that will help children to learn about their local area in an accessible way. It is available to stream and download on our website www.fantasticforres.com and on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@fantasticforres. The downloadable file can also be sent on request by contacting fantasticforres@gmail.com

Wild Things is an award winning environmental education charity working in Moray, Aberdeenshire and the Highlands. Since 2003, Wild Things has enabled over 36,000 children, young people and adults to learn from and be inspired by their local natural environment. We pride ourselves on bringing nature experiences to all areas of our community and blend a holistic mixture of conservation, wellbeing and education into all of our charitable programmes. Having access to reliable and accessible transport is absolutely fundamental to these programmes and without this key piece of equipment, we would be unable to deliver our outreach work across a highly diverse set of communities.

We would have definitely not been able to do this project without the funding from the Berry Burn Community Fund. The significance of the support for the enabling works has been huge as we have now been able to start Phase 1 of the capital building works which has been funded from other sources. The support for the enabling works has also meant we are in a better position to move forward in the other capital works to ensure the sustainability of Forres Town Hall and to bring it up to 21st century standards which will cost around £5M.

We have upgraded the scoring system at the Dallas Miniature Rifle Club to being electronic. This means one gets feedback instantly whilst shooting. The benefits of smallbore rifle shooting include strength, stamina, hand-eye coordination and self-discipline. It requires concentration and mental alertness and we hope that with the immediate and exact feedback we will get with this system, members will improve thus giving them a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

We hope to encourage new members who might appreciate the technology, and to continue to provide a space for anyone to meet and share a common interest.

We here at Rothes Community Limited are delighted with our new equipment and wonder why we persevered so long with old equipment. We will appreciate having it for our quarterly newspaper “The Rothesian”, for our other local community printing jobs, and for our calendars which are a huge part of our income stream. This has also opened the door for other printed goods, such as postcards and notelets which we are often asked for. Looking forward to coming up with new ideas.

Without the assistance of funds from the Berry Burn Community Fund, the functioning of the hydrotherapy pool in Forres might have been abrupted without warning. The Moray Hydrotherapy board did not have sufficient funds to meet the cost of replacing two boilers and carrying out essential improvements to the boiler room. Consequently the hydrotherapy pool would have ceased to function, taking away a vital resource to Moray.

Film Forres have completed a pilot project to take cinema out to local village halls in some of our smaller communities. Through the winter of 2022/2023 and of 2023/2024, Film Forres visited village halls with their mobile cinema and provided an opportunity for community gathering and social interaction whilst watching a film of their choice.