Creative wave rolls into Eastern region with lottery funding

Area:

East of England

Programme:

Young People's Fund Grants to Organisations

Release date:

6 2 2007

Big Lottery Fund Head of Eastern Region, Sara Betsworth, said: "Today’s grants for the Eastern region show BIG’s commitment to young people - it’s great to see Lottery funds used to invest in young people and provide much needed services and activities. These essential projects – all with young people at the helm - will go a long way towards allowing issues faced by young people to be more widely understood by the general public. I'm also confident that today's funding will improve our communities and enhance the lives of the people that live in them."

SeaChange Arts are planning to use their award for a project to cultivate a dynamic artistic scene for young people in Great Yarmouth through a range of creative events and activities - drama, music, dance, carnival, film, cinema, and festivals - devised and managed by young people. SeaChange have undertaken creative work and research with young people in Great Yarmouth and have established that there is a big shortage of creative opportunities - especially led by young people themselves.

SeaChange believe that young people’s lives will be enriched by the manifold creative opportunities this project seeks to bring about and by making valuable contributions to the cultural life of their communities. Young people will also be inspired to think about progression into creative industries, which is a fast-growing sector of the economy in Norfolk.

Joe Mackintosh, Director at SeaChange Trust, says: “This the award which will open up creative opportunities to far more young people and make a significant contribution to the rebuilding of a sense of youth-led cultural vibrancy in Great Yarmouth.  The young people involved will be able to draw on some fantastic expertise to help them realise their creative intentions – including wide range of local creative practitioners and groups but also some cultural big-hitters from further a field including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a major film production company. We know there is fantastic untapped talent in the area and are tremendously excited about unleashing this over the next three years.

Over in Suffolk, Young People Taking Action, locally known as CYDS, a Leiston-based organisation will be using £148,430 to run an after school activity programme for young people. The funding will enable CYDS to help young rurally isolated people: they will receive one to one support with homework; sport and volunteering opportunities will be offered; and a number of workshops will be run in independent living skills.

Stuart Watson, CYDS Centre Manager, said: “CYDS is really delighted to be lucky enough to have been awarded a grant by the Young Peoples Fund, especially this year as it is our tenth birthday. This project will help young people to learn important life skills such as cooking on a budget as well as helping to raise self-esteem and confidence in their ability to learn. The individual support will allow young people to gain more from their studies and help them feel more confident in all aspects of their lives.“

An eager throng of young revelers is getting ready for the doors of a new and unique nightclub to open.  Hertfordshire's ActOne ArtsBase is gearing up to use its £57,460 grant to develop the UV club nights: young people from different backgrounds, disabled and non-disabled, will work together to create an event that they all can enjoy. ActOne’s aim is to give participants a space to be accepted as themselves; the freedom to enjoy friendships and to achieve fulfilling goals alongside each other.

Suzie Scambler, Artistic Director at ActOne ArtsBase, said: “The funding granted to us by The Big Lottery Fund, enables UV to fulfill its potential. Funds will be used to develop club nights over two years 2007/2008 with 6 events touring Hertfordshire and involving venues and young people countywide. UV also hopes to draw attention to the issue of accessibility in venues - a matter commonly overlooked by the leisure industry. The experienced UV team will work closely with venue managers to deal with any potential problems and introduce staff to an inclusive atmosphere. For example, fast moving disco lights are slowed down or swapped with static UV lights, allowing epileptics to relax!”

Other areas are also set to benefit from Young People’s Fund grants – please see the full list of today’s awards below:

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 Young People’s Fund in England was launched in September 2004. Funding from the Young People’s Fund open grants programme in England can be accessed through three specific strands: £10 million for applications from individuals, £40 million in grants to voluntary organisations/ partnerships, £27.6 million will go to national organisations for large projects.
• The Big Lottery Fund's Board has agreed to allocate a further £100m to the extension of the Young People's Fund programme in England. The money will be allocated in 2006 following a paper to the Big Lottery Fund’s Board that develops the possible options for the extension. These options will be developed to reflect the learning from our current programmes and to compliment the messages of the DfES Youth Green Paper that is to be published soon.
• The Young People’s Fund aims to put young people at the centre of creating, planning and delivering projects to achieve the following:

1. Being healthy: enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy lifestyle
2. Staying safe: being protected from harm and neglect and growing up able to look after   themselves
3. Enjoying and achieving getting the most out of life and developing the skills for adulthood
4. Making a positive contribution: to the community and society and not offending or behaving anti-socially
5. Economic wellbeing: overcoming disadvantages to achieve their full potential in life.

• The success criteria for this programme include young people’s involvement at every stage of the project from start to finish and the project delivering on at least, two of the five Young People’s Fund programme aims. To be considered applicants will need to demonstrate how they intend to achieve both of these objectives.
• Big Lottery Fund is the joint operating name of the New Opportunities Fund and the National Lottery Charities Board (which made grants under the name of the Community Fund). The Big Lottery Fund, launched on 1 June 2004, is distributing half of all National Lottery good cause funding across the UK.
• The Big Lottery 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. To date, the two merged Funds have committed more than £6 billion to initiatives with national, regional and local partners from the public, voluntary, charity and private sectors, with a particular focus on disadvantage.

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