- Area:
- Northern Ireland
- Programme:
- Awards for All Northern Ireland
- Release date:
- 24 4 2013
A project supporting people who have acquired a brain injury is sharing in a major grants windfall from the Big Lottery Fund.
The Big Lottery Fund’s Awards For All small grants programme is awarding Headway Newry a grant of £9,600 as part of a grants roll-out of £604,181 to 69 groups across Northern Ireland.
A full list of Awards For All grants in Northern Ireland.
Awards for All offers community, voluntary and statutory groups the chance to apply for small grants of between £500 and £10,000 that will have a big impact on local communities and the lives of people most in need.
Headway Newry will use the grant to run a Men’s Shed project at its new premises in the city, giving its male members the opportunity to do woodwork and gardening.
The project was welcomed by Vincent Ward, 43, a former bricklayer who suffered a brain injury as a result of an accident during the Belfast to Dublin maracycle in 1998. He was unconscious for two and a half months. “Mentally and physically I could not go back to work. I can’t walk straight now, never mind build a wall straight,” he said. But Vincent says he, and other men like him, have talents which would be well put to use in a Men’s Shed project.
Sheila Quinn, Development Officer with Headway, said: “Acquired brain injury and depression go hand in hand. We believe the Men’s Shed project is a great way to combat depression. Research has shown that men who may not be comfortable talking face to face will talk shoulder to shoulder.
“They will work on our allotment and the shed will be used for woodwork, making things like raised beds which are important as many of our members have disabilities and cannot kneel down to do work like weeding.”
“All these brain injury survivors will never work again,” said Sheila. “They include carpenters, bricklayers and plasterers and this project will give them a sense of belonging and a chance to develop their skills. To spend an afternoon working with their hands in the woodwork shed or on the allotment will give them real pleasure.”
Vincent agreed: “I am looking forward to working on the allotment. When you are gardening it does not matter if you fall over, you have a safe landing on soil and you can scrape, shovel and pull weeds.
“There are a lot of men who have had to retire because of their brain injury, joiners, plasterers and men who are useful with their hands. Some of them might not have worked for 20 or 30 years so to have the chance to hammer nails and saw wood will be quite an achievement. Talking together at the same time will make us feel nearly normal again.”
A rural GAA club has been awarded a grant of £3,430 to buy a defibrillator. Brendan Quail, a committee member of Liatroim Fontenoys GAA Club, Co Down, said the move was precautionary. “Every GAA club should have a defibrillator on its grounds. There have been a few deaths in GAA from Sudden Cardiac Arrest, and we have had a lot of our younger members screened.
“We are a rural club with around 300 adult members and 200 juvenile members. Our closest hospitals are Downpatrick, Newry or Craigavon. This funding will not only enable us to buy a defibrillator and train people how to use it, but it will also fund training for coaches in first aid and child protection.”
Frank Hewitt, Big Lottery Fund NI Chair, said: “The Big Lottery Fund’s NI Awards for All programme funds health, education, environment and community projects that help people bring about positive change in their lives, improve health and well-being, develop skills and create safer communities.
“The application process is simple and accessible and shall remain so, making it easy for applicants to successfully apply for small pots of funding that can have such a big impact on local communities and lives.”
Application forms and guidance notes are available to download at www.awardsforall.org.uk. For more details call us on 028 9055 1455, or e-mail us at enquiriesni@biglotteryfund.org.uk
For more information contact:
Karen Ireland Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 028 90 551 426
Out of hours contact: 07788 640 791
Notes to Editors
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half 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. 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 £25 billion has now been raised and more than 330,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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