Lottery grows organic communities

Area:

East Midlands

Programme:

Reaching Communities

Release date:

20 2 2007

The Ecoworks community market garden and education centre, is amongst six organisation in the East Midlands receiving lottery good cause money totalling £668,313 from BIG’s Reaching Communities programme today.

Ecoworks, based in St Anns in the centre of Nottingham, will subsidise chemical free fruit and vegetables to encourage the local community to purchase organic food. The project will work with a wide range of disadvantaged groups including mental health service users, the unemployed, homeless and young people who are not in education, training or employment.

Gina Seed, project co-ordinator, said: “This funding will help us to widen community involvement and we will also develop a structured programme of accredited horticulture training, healthy eating, craft and environmentally themed workshops.

“BIG’s award of five years core funding will allow this social enterprise to be able to develop a long term strategy to ensure its self-sustainability as an ongoing local environmental resource.“

Also receiving an award in the region is Home-Start Hinckley, in Leicestershire. The organisation gets £109,361 to support families in difficulty and provide advice and guidance. Issues covered in support groups will include children’s health information, benefit entitlement and parenting skills. A specialist play worker will also be there to provide stimulating play for children.

Jennie Wroe, Senior Organiser, said: "Our Home Start groups offer a normalising experience for parents and children amidst the chaos of life, and they reach out to families that feel isolated and offer them the support they need.

"Five year funding for the Home Start groups will allow us to consolidate and focus on supporting local families instead of the continuous and frustrating search for money."

Elsewhere in the region, young people leaving care in the Amber Valley will now receive the support they need to become independent thanks to a helping hand of £107,824 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The project by Amber Valley CVS, called Moving Forward with SoS (signposting or support), will offer help in identifying training and employment options, voluntary activitiy and support with benefits, housing issues and independent living skills such as budgeting and cooking. The aim is that young people have the support to move into a local community and are empowered through this to become active citizens in community life.”

Also receiving funding today is Bakewell and Eyam community transport, which is awarded £208,740 to run a subsidised transport service in rural areas of North Derbyshire for people who have difficulty accessing local services. In Mansfield, Navi Saheli (The North Notts Asian Women’s Organisation) gets £52,255 to provide freshly cooked lunches to isolated and elderly members of the Indian community. Finally, Hinckley Sea Cadets will use £50,000 for an extension to its building which will add toilet/shower and kitchen facilities.

Mick McGrath, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for the East Midlands, said: “With nearly £700,000 worth of funding announced today for the region, these six organisations will begin work to reach out to local vulnerable people to offer them more opportunities and support. These projects are vital in tackling disadvantage and encouraging greater involvement in community life.”

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone:  0845 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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