- Area:
- West Midlands
- Programme:
- Supporting Change and Impact
- Release date:
- 20 3 2012
Charities across the West Midlands which are feeling the effects of public funding cuts, including a Coventry-based organisation challenging young people to develop their aspirations, and a Telford-based Citizen’s Advice Bureau, have been given a Lottery lifeline today.
Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has awarded 20 of its grant-holders in the West Midlands an extra year’s worth of funding to enable them to continue their work through the tough economic environment. Grants of up to £10,000 have also been awarded to a further 64 projects to help them review their work and find ways of becoming more sustainable.
Projects sharing in the funding - totalling over £2.9 million - provide vital services to some of the most vulnerable groups in society. Many face an uncertain future as their Lottery funding comes to an end, compounded by increasing demand from beneficiaries as other services are forced to scale back or close down, and welfare reforms begin to take effect.
Valley House in Coventry will use their Supporting Change and Impact grant of £129,903 to cope with steep demand following a 63% rise in beneficiary numbers over the past year, as well as to develop a career-focused online community resource for the centre and general running costs. The organisation offers a wide range of vital services, including supported and emergency accommodation for teenage mothers and their children and victims of domestic violence; a Sure Start Children’s centre; adult education classes, counselling services and outreach support to beneficiaries in their accommodation.
The key to the project’s success is its focus on peer mentoring, and the fact that young parents can come to the centre and access activities while their children are supervised in specialised services or a crèche.
Project Director Miles Larmour said: “We work with a lot of 16-25-year-olds. I think in a lot of youth projects, that’s a stretch. It does mean the positives for peer mentoring are greatly enhanced by the wider age range. One of the things the service does is it challenges young people to really push their boundaries and develop their aspirations.
“Youth provision generally across the country has been terribly compromised. BIG is one of the most civilised funding streams around. We are able to very much put the young people at the centre of the service and springboard off their wishes and emerging needs.
“Young people who have been in the project have told their friends and family about it and the word spreads that ‘there’s this great, fun place where the children get to access quality children’s services’.”
Telford and the Wrekin Citizens Advice Bureau in Shropshire will use their £40,610 grant to respond to a rapidly growing need to help beneficiaries with advice relating to debt, and train more volunteers to become advisers.
Chris Jones, CAB Advice Session Supervisor and Caseworker, said: “We are delighted that BIG have granted us the vital funding necessary to allow us to continue to respond to the ever-increasing client need. Given the current economic climate, client demand and the major changes concerning disability benefits that will have a detrimental impact upon individuals and families, this funding will enable us to continue with our work. We will continue to build on the work already done with the view of training and up-skilling volunteers in order to implement and sustain the valuable support and assistance that so many of our vulnerable clients need.”
The funding is part of a Big Lottery Fund initiative called Supporting Change & Impact, which totals over £70m and is designed to help Lottery-funded good causes cope with the developing impact of public funding cuts. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) estimates that voluntary and community groups will experience a reduction in public funding of up to £3.3 billion by 2015.
John Taylor, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region West Midlands said: “As a major funder of the charitable and community sector, the Big Lottery Fund is only too aware of the increasing pressures facing organisations across the sector as the full effect of public funding cuts comes to bear.
“Today’s funding for projects across the West Midlands will help provide essential advice services for people of all ages. Local organisations have been struggling to meet demand to provide vital support and services to thousands of vulnerable and disadvantaged people across the country. This funding gives groups some much needed time and space to plan for the future, and explore ways of making their projects more sustainable, whether that be developing more effective operating models, partnership working, or finding new ways to deliver activities in future.”
As part of the £70m support package, BIG also added over £25m to its two main open grants programme in England, Reaching Communities and Awards for All, to fund an additional 1,200 charitable and community projects, and has awarded almost £20 million to partner organisations that distribute or manage funding on its behalf to further support their grant holders. These include MIND, Groundwork, and Age UK, who deliver funding as part of BIG’s Well-being and Changing Spaces grants programmes.
A full list of projects awarded an extra year’s funding.
A list of projects receiving up to £10,000 to review and plan for the future.
Further Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund
Notes to Editors
- The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 46% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
- BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £4.4bn.
- The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
- Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £27 billion has now been raised and more than 370,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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