Lottery cash SOS for Sussex suicide survival project

Area:

South East England

Programme:

Reaching Communities

Release date:

20 2 2007

The Sussex grants, part of over £2.1 million today awarded across the South East under BIG’s Reaching Communities programme, will go to Rethink - Survivors of Suicide (SOS), Amberley Chalk Pits Museum and Blackboys Village Hall Management Committee.

Big Lottery Fund Head of South East England Alison Rowe said: “These crucial projects will give vulnerable people across Sussex a chance for brighter prospects and better opportunities by helping them cope with illness, disadvantage and social isolation. They typify how the Reaching Communities programme is making a real difference to so many lives.”

A vital recovery project to give one-to-one support to people who have attempted suicide will today receive close to £484,000. Rethink - Survivors of Suicide (SOS), based in Hastings and Brighton, will use the funding to extend services across Eastbourne. The project, now in its ninth year, helps people who have attempted suicide but do not get statutory support, as they are not diagnosed with a mental illness. It also provides support group sessions for people affected by suicide, their families and friends, and people who are bereaved by suicide.

Paul Jenkins, Rethink's Chief Executive, said: "I am delighted that the Big Lottery Fund has chosen to fund Rethink's SOS Hastings service, which is a lifeline for people who have survived a suicide attempt. The funding helps safeguard the future of this excellent service, and means Rethink can expand SOS Hastings to include Eastbourne and other coastal areas, such as Beachy Head, where we know people urgently need our expert help."

A 36 six-acre open-air museum dedicated to the industrial heritage of the South East will today receive £36,808 for a thriving volunteer project. Amberley Working Museum, home to both an extensive transport and industrial collection, will use the grant to expand and manage a team of over 300 volunteers, including retired people, people with disabilities, ex offenders and the unemployed who support the museum using skills from their existing or past trades.

Howard Stenning Museum Director said: “Without the volunteers there would be no Museum and without the generous support of the Big Lottery Fund there would probably be no Volunteer Co-ordinator. We must therefore thank BIG most sincerely for helping us to continue our undertaking to restore and preserve our irreplaceable industrial heritage collection.

He continued: “Amberley has a remit to preserve the industrial heritage of the region and is now the workplace for some three hundred volunteers who restore, display and demonstrate the collection, ranging from Southdown Vintage buses, narrow gauge railway rolling stock, to pre computerised printing machinery, telecommunications, electricity and much more.”

Launching a project to benefit people living in rural isolation and rejuvenate the hub of the Uckfield community, Blackboys Village Hall Management Committee receives £12,000. The award, which will fund crucial safety refurbishments to Blackboys Village Hall, will enable all members of the community to continue to enjoy local events and group activities, such as Scouts, pre-school playgroup, the local historical society and the Parish council.

D Eryl Thomas, Chairman BBVH management committee, said: ''Our village hall was becoming dilapidated and usage was reducing; with an injection of finances, particularly from the Big Lottery Fund, the premises are being re-roofed, new windows fitted, central heating installed, toilets replaced, electrical safety addressed and significant safety and disabled access works are soon to begin. All of this will ensure that hall users will enjoy improved facilities and new users and activities for the community are encouraged. Without local support and help this would not be possible but the help from the BIG and others has ensured the measures envisaged can become reality''.

The Reaching Communities programme awards up to £500,000 to projects that offer people better chances in life, build strong communities, improve urban and rural environments and promote healthy activities.

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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