Lottery award keeps Kettering fit and healthy

Area:

East Midlands

Programme:

Reaching Communities

Release date:

30 1 2007

Focusing on older people, young parents and children, Keep Healthy @ Kettering will use the £498,793 award to provide a wide range of services and activities to keep local people fit and healthy. The scheme provides a range of individual projects across the borough that look to improve people’s health and welfare by tackling obstacles that prevent people from leading a healthier lifestyle.

Activities include walk-in centres for parents and carers with pre-school children, providing a traditional ‘mother & toddler’ play scheme, along with opportunities to learn more about healthy lifestyles. A men’s fitness group that runs exercise sessions and advice about diet and nutrition, and a handy persons scheme promotes independent living for older people by helping with small repairs, home safety checks, and other support around the home.

Councillor Alison Wiley, Kettering Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Leisure & Community, said: “Keep Healthy @ Kettering is a vital part of our work within the Borough to help raise levels of fitness throughout the community.  We have been able to work with voluntary organisations, statutory bodies and, crucially, with partners within the community to achieve our current levels of success. We are thrilled to have been awarded this further funding by the Big Lottery Fund, which will mean that we can continue this excellent work.  

“We have been particularly keen to take the message to people living in disadvantaged areas, ensuring that help and support is readily available to them.  This wonderful award means that we will be able to continue, and expand, these important services which we are anxious should be available to all ages, from older people who may need special exercise programmes to help them keep fit, to parents for whom we are providing local walk-in centres where they can seek advice.  This is an exciting opportunity for us; the Big Lottery funding may well literally help us to save lives.”

Mick McGrath, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for the East Midlands, said: “This fantastic project to keep the people of Kettering fit and healthy is just one example of the benefits the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme is bringing to the East Midlands. In December alone, the programme saw almost £1.2 million awarded to organisations across our region to help improve the lives of some of the most disadvantaged groups and to make communities better places to live.”

The grant awarded to Keep Healthy @ Kettering is one of four Reaching Communities awards, totalling just under £1.2 million, announced across the East Midlands today.

The region’s other Reaching Communities awards will help build a new community centre in Skillington near Grantham, provide services to help young people involved with drugs in Gainsborough, and provide day services for homeless people in Bassetlaw.

For the people of Skillington, a £50,000 grant means a 10-year wait for a new community centre is almost over. The grant will be used to help build a new youth and community centre, replacing the previous village hall, which closed a decade earlier.

In Gainsborough, Rainer Lincolnshire, has been awarded £145,375 for its Gainsborough Life Skills and Support for Drug Users Project. The three-year grant will help provide support services to rehabilitate young people who have become involved with drugs and crime.

Finally, a £488,123 grant will help Worksop based charity, HOPE, provide an extended day service for homeless people in Bassetlaw. The five-year funding will focus on running sessions on social responsibility, understanding and considering emotions, anger management and mentoring. This project will also provide counselling, information and guidance regarding housing, employment, education, and drug and alcohol problems.

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK most people are within a few miles of a Lottery-funded project.
• The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since its inception in June 2004.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.
• Reaching Communities is part of the Big Lottery Fund’s portfolio of new programmes. Following an intense and comprehensive process of consultation with stakeholders and the general public over the last year, the Fund has undertaken to distribute 60-70% of its funding to the third sector.  At least one-third of BIG funding will be demand-led and lightly prescribed.  In England, this will amount to at least £600 million over the period 2005-2009. This commitment will be met from a variety of funding streams, including, Reaching Communities, Awards for All, part of the Young People’s Fund, Community Buildings, Advice Services and the People’s Millions.
• UK-wide, the Big Lottery Fund will distribute through its new programmes and allocations funding worth over £2.6bn between now and April 2009. Regularly updated information on the Big Lottery Fund’s new programmes is available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/publications.htm

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