Lottery scores for disabled football

Area:

London

Programme:

Reaching Communities

Release date:

20 2 2007

Established in 2004, the South London Special League (SLSL) brings the opportunity to play competitive football to young people and adults with special needs. With the BIG grant, the expanding organisation will employ a development worker to take care of the day to day running of the SLSL, bringing the benefits of the game to more disabled people across London.

Sharon Brokenshire, the SLSL project manager said: “We play small-sided football mostly on all weather surfaces, to ensure that players with a disability are able to access the game in the most effective way and are not excluded due to not owning proper football boots.

“This is a fantastic big break that will make the SLSL the most effective project for football players with special needs. It will change everyone’s perception of this area of the sport and make it unbeatable.

“At last, the SLSL will become professional and sustainable. It will fulfil its ambition to make a valuable difference to people’s lives through playing regular competitive football and help the players lead healthy lifestyles, raise self-esteem, make new friends and ultimately aspire to have better lives.”

Children are sometimes the forgotten victims of homelessness and a new project by Shelter receives £479,788 to tackle the issue of their educational needs. This new scheme, set up in partnership with the Kings Cross Homelessness Project will target children from homeless families who are currently living in temporary accommodation in the London Borough of Newham.

The scheme will identify their needs and support them to overcome the obstacles they face to achieve educational success. Working with families and the most vulnerable children directly, the project will ensure improved access to educational opportunities.

Shelter Chief Executive Adam Sampson welcomed the award: “The grant from the Big Lottery Fund will enable Shelter to support 450 homeless children, aged between 5 and 16 years old, improving their school attendance, educational attainment and self-esteem. It will help give these children a future, and allow Shelter to tackle the overall problem in years to come.

Adam Sampson continued: “Children in temporary accommodation often don’t have a quiet place to do their homework or a bedroom to call their own. Homelessness has dramatically negative effects on children’s physical and emotional well-being. With the Big Lottery Fund’s support, our project will tackle this pressing issue in an area of real need.”

Other groups receiving funding today include Kurdistan Refugee Women's Organisation in Britain that gets £151,004 for an Islington-based support and development project working with women, who have experienced domestic violence and abuse. Assisting them in building new friendships and support networks, the project will ultimately lead to new opportunities for women to become more active and visible in their communities.

Home Energy Efficiency Training (HEET) will build healthier homes with £355,857 awarded to continue to tackle the links between ill health and poor housing conditions in Waltham Forest. Working with health and social care professionals, it will identify vulnerable households where people live in cold and damp homes to carry out a free package of energy efficiency, heating and ventilation home improvements in consultation with the householder. They will also provide local, unemployed people with NVQ skills training and Open College Network accredited training in loft insulation and draught proofing.

Drumming their way to healthier lives, African Traditional Drumming and Dance Project based in Deptford will use its £53,180 to expand upon its previous successes to engage young people in traditional African drumming and dance after school hours. Through free workshops and public performances, A Way Forward project will challenge antisocial behaviour, promote social cohesion, increase academic attainment, tackle obesity and increase the confidence of its beneficiaries.

While the Restore Community Project in Haringey, that cleans and distributes the recycled household items to those in need, gets £260,893 for a new MUFFIN project to create a more structured volunteering environment at the organisation.

Debbie Pippard, BIG’s Head of London Regional Office said: “The grants awarded by the Reaching Communities programme today demonstrate perfectly the diversity of grassroots projects that are all doing their bit to make life in London better not just for their direct beneficiaries, but for communities as a whole and we are very pleased to be able to support their work.”

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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