Lottery support for vulnerable families in Solihull and Birmingham

Release date:

30 1 2007

A £491,064 grant to Birmingham & Solihull Women’s Aid will help the group set up a family support service for women and children who have suffered from domestic violence. The project will help mothers and children take part in activities together, including play schemes and homework clubs, to reinforce relationships and enhance parenting skills. Sessions with family support workers will also be offered, enabling youngsters and mothers to feel safe enough to express their feelings.

Nasheima Sheikh, Assistant Chief Executive of Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid, said: “Children needed tailored support to help them recover from their experiences of abuse. Research shows that 90 per cent of children are in the same or next room when domestic violence takes place. The Children and Adoption Act 2002 recognises this as causing harm to children, while up to two thirds of domestic violence cases include child abuse.

“Our service will provide in-depth support to children and their mothers affected by domestic violence, by offering safe and confidential ways to enable children to discuss their experiences and empower them to develop positive coping strategies. Children will be given individual attention to make them feel valuable in their own right and within a child friendly environment, making their stay in refuge more fun. We hope to enable children and mothers to make sense of their experiences and to rebuild their lives.”

In Kings Heath, the All Saints Community Development Company has been granted £191,559 to extend its services for young people to include parents and to help refurbish its base in the All Saints Parish Church.

The project will target parents of youngsters with learning difficulties, behavioural problems and of young people at risk. It will also embrace teenage parents, young people at risk of

pregnancy and youngsters aged 11 to 21.It will offer counselling, advice and support in parenting skills and managing difficult situations and establish peer groups for mothers and young parents to improve their capacity to manage money and relationships. Parents from hard-to-reach groups and parents with children at risk will receive counselling, peer group support and referral to specialist agencies.

Brian Miles, Director of All Saints Community Development Company, said: “We’ve identified, through working with young people for 10 years, a real need to include the parents of youngsters in our current programme of counselling, mediation, mentoring and support.

“Working with families will let us address the root cause of behaviour, such as communication breakdowns and the need for better parental support and guidance. Involving parents will allow us to make a real and lasting difference to lives of families.”

In Smethwick, the Bangladeshi Islamic Centre will provide advocacy and mentoring for young people in a project awarded £376,614 over five years. Young people who are having trouble accessing local services, lack self-confidence and who need support to find work opportunities will be helped by the project.

Musleh Uddin, Centre Manager, said: “The committee members and friends of the Bangladeshi Islamic Centre are absolutely thrilled by the receipt of this award. It is a great opportunity to increase the services and build on the work we do in the local community.”

“The grant is going to allow us to recruit two new full time staff members. The advocacy and advice worker will provide information and advice to local people accessing the centre, promoting and developing advice services in such a way as to enable people to learn for themselves, increasing their confidence and self esteem. The youth outreach worker will support and assist young people in the community providing home and centre based support, to increase their confidence and skills and their future employment.”

Meanwhile in North Solihull and East Birmingham, children entering school for the first time and their parents, will benefit from a Family Welfare Association early intervention service granted £212,063 over two years.

The service will target vulnerable children who have problems of low self esteem and need help to gain confidence. It will provide families with the self-confidence and support to help youngsters perform at school to the best of their ability and avoid exclusion. Help will include community support, whole school programmes and individual mentoring for children and their families.

In Coventry, adults with learning disabilities will tackle health problems, ignorance and discrimination that choke their life opportunities in Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire’s project granted £453,438. And more volunteers will lend a hand to Newcastle-under-Lyme families affected by illness or disability, thanks to Home-Start Newcastle Borough’s support project ‘s £254,850 grant.

The Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme awards grants of up to £500,000 over five years for projects that offer people better chances in life, build strong communities, improve urban and rural environments and promote healthy activities.

Big Lottery Fund Head of West Midlands John Taylor said: “Families will be strengthened and young children protected through the projects announced today for Birmingham and Solihull. These terrific initiatives demonstrate how Reaching Communities is bringing better opportunities in life to people in need.”

Further information

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