Community Channel (www.communitychannel.org) Community Channel’s Do Something Brilliant celebrates communities in Ayrshire, broadcasting on Friday 11th December at 10pm.

Do Something Brilliant this week comes from Ayrshire in Scotland, presented from the Harbour Arts Centre and the Courtyard Studios in Irvine by Farah Bradford and Kyle Smith.

More than 17,000 children in Scotland live in care. They frequently report living with a sense of isolation and social dislocation as well as bullying and stereotyping. However, with the support of the charity Who Cares? Scotland, pupils at one school in North Ayrshire are breaking down those stereotypes for themselves.

The town of Beith is the birthplace of one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence and used to be the home of a flourishing luxury furniture industry. Now, the local community development trust is looking to the future by rebuilding new enterprises and helping young people into new jobs.

Building and linking communities around Ayrshire through everything from archery classes to vegetable gardening, photography, mosaic-making and historical walks are central to the Link Up project in Kilmarnock.

Women working in the cotton mills of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were unique for their swagger and radicalism and the story of the Paisley Mill Girls has been touring Scotland and beyond with an evocative blend of poetry and song from the factory floor to the dancefloor.

Pete Murray, Do Something Brilliant Outreach Manager, Scotland, stated, “Do Something Brilliant is all about championing communities and showing that everyone can get involved and do small things in their own lives that add up to a big difference for everyone. This episode from Ayrshire showcases exactly this – with features from Who Cares?, Beith and Kilmarnock amongst the inspiring stories of how people, charities and communities change lives for the better.”

Do Something Brilliant Ayrshire broadcasts on Friday 11th November @ 10am & Saturday 12 December @ 6am. Do Something Brilliant Ayrshire will also be available on-demand on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/user/CommunityChannelTV

The Do Something Brilliant TV series is brought to you in association with Freesat, the subscription-free satellite TV service.

Series two will follow in April 2016 with another six episodes from across the U.K.

To get involved, visit www.dosomethingbrilliant.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @ComChanTV.

Note to Editors

About Do Something Brilliant

Do Something Brilliant is a Community Channel and Media Trust campaign, funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The three-year campaign will champion England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland communities and inspire our audiences to do #somethingbrilliant in their own lives and make a big difference to themselves and the people around them. www.dosomethingbrilliant.co.uk

About Community Channel

Community Channel is the only channel for communities, charities and local stories and is available in 26 million homes across the UK on TV and online. It broadcasts entertaining stories, inspiring series and pioneering documentaries that encourage viewers to Do #SomethingBrilliant to change their world. Community Channel broadcasts on Freeview 63 and Freeview HD 109, Sky 539, Virgin 233, freesat 651 with catch-up through our website, YouTube, BT Vision and BBC iPlayer. Over two million people watch the channel each month. Community Channel is a Media Trust initiative, funded by Big Lottery Fund. www.communitychannel.org

About Media Trust

At Media Trust we believe in the power of media to change lives. We work with the media industry to empower charities and communities to have a voice and be heard. This is achieved by providing communications skills and resources through expert-led training courses and events, free professional support, film production, free online guides and resources; helping access audiences through Community Channel on TV and online; harnessing creative industry talent through media volunteers and media partnerships.
Our corporate members include: A+E Networks, adam&eveDDB, AMV BBDO, Arqiva, BBC, Bloomberg, BT, Camelot, Channel 4, Dentsu Aegis network, Discovery Networks Europe, dmg media, Endemol Shine, ESI Media, Facebook, Global Radio, Google, Guardian Media Group, Havas Media Group, Hearst, ITN, ITV, Just::Health Communications, MTV Networks UK & Ireland, Next 15, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sky, Starcom MediaVest, telegraph media group, Twitter, Time Warner, Trinity Mirror, Virgin Media, UBM, UKTV, Weber Shandwick, WPP and Yahoo!.

For more information visit www.mediatrust.org, or follow us @Media_Trust

About Freesat

Freesat is a subscription free hybrid satellite TV service offering digital television to everyone in the UK. It offers more than 200 TV, radio and interactive channels; including free HD services from ITV, the BBC and Channel 4; Freesat+ to record, pause and rewind, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5; all for free. Freesat is a joint venture between ITV and the BBC.

About the Big Lottery Fund:

• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• The Big Lottery Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 awarding close to £6bn.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888, Out of hours: 07867 500 572, Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030. If you have a hearing or speech impairment you can contact us using Text Relay at 18001 plus 0191 376 1776.