£3million boost for Wales people and places

Area:

Wales

Programme:

People and Places

Release date:

10 5 2007

Thirteen community projects the length and breadth of the country share in the £3,040,741 awarded under the latest round of the Big Lottery Fund’s (BIG) People and Places programme. People and Places has £66 million in the pot for projects in Wales that aim to bring people together to make communities stronger and to improve rural and urban environments.

Two Projects in North Wales will receive a slice of nearly £400,000. With the £245,826, Relate North Wales in Conwy will deliver programmes to men who are non-convicted perpetrators of domestic violence in order to assist them to address and change their violent behaviour. Relate will also support female partners and children to address their emotional difficulties. In Gwynedd, Pwyllgor Rheoli Canolfan Prenteg will use its £140,960 award to build a new community centre and garden for the residents of Prenteg, near Porthmadog.

Projects in Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen will benefit from a total of over £904,902 awarded. The largest sum of all was awarded to Torfaen County Borough Council, which will spend £654,949 to provide a new purpose-built facility for the community of Penygarn and St Cadoc's. The facility will be a venue for community learning and a meeting place to foster community cohesion. With the £249,953 it received, the BTCV will run a project to provide communities in Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent with tailored advice and support to deliver local environmental projects and build a network of 'Growing Greener' community groups.

Receiving £309,412, The Women's Workshop Cardiff Training Centre Ltd will provide training for women experiencing disadvantage to enable them to integrate into the community and the workplace, while Pencader Family Centre in Carmarthenshire will spend £116,847 on developing various initiatives for families living in the Pencader area.

Based in Lampeter, Ceredigion, but serving community groups from across West Wales, Shared Earth Trust will spend £227,892 to deliver a series of seasonal, environmentally linked activities. Adults and young people from a range of community groups involved in supporting people with learning and physical disabilities will benefit. It will promote environmental, personal and social sustainability through using an integrated approach.

Three projects amounting to £219,426 will benefit in Powys. The largest award of £144,864 will go to Brecknockshire Citizen Advocacy. Based in Brecon and serving Powys, the project will develop and extend current self-advocacy groups in areas across the county. More groups will be set up and beneficiaries will be trained to self-advocate, increasing confidence and life-skills. Llanymynech Village Hall will spend £68,348 to refurbish an existing village hall in the rural village.  It will incorporate a stage and auditorium, badminton court, secure storage space for stage props, seating systems, sports equipment and a new booking/ticket room and office.  Alexandra Hall Action Group in Llangammarch Wells will spend its award of £6,214 to develop plans to renovate and improve the existing hall, which is in a poor state of repair.  

An award of £186,800 will allow Ty Fforest Community House in Swansea to develop a project to target socially isolated adults and encourage them to participate in their local community and its activities. The other aspect of the project is to develop new opportunities and activities for children and young people, targeting children aged up to five years, and young people aged 16- 25 years.

Two Wales-wide projects will also cashed in on the awards. AbilityNet's core business is the provision of individual assessments to disabled people, to identify with them the best solution to guarantee access to ICT. Services in Wales are currently supported from centres in Liverpool and Bristol. It is often difficult for individuals to travel to these centres, particularly from the more remote areas of Wales. With its £249,516, AbilityNet will establish a Wales base in Blaenau Gwent and use ICT and internet services locally based in 90 public access centres across Wales to reduce the waiting time for assessments to 10 days and significantly increase the number of assessments undertaken.

Covering North and South Wales, Trothwy Housing Association plans to spend £439,160 to provide shelter, training and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people through setting up a short and long-term accommodation scheme.

Commenting on the positive impact the awards will have on the communities throughout Wales, the newly appointed Wales Chair for the Big Lottery Fund, Huw Vaughan Thomas, said:  “Programmes like People and Places are making a difference to the lives of so many people in communities across Wales. People and Places delivers on our promise to use Lottery funding to regenerate and revitalise communities, tackle disadvantage head on and leave a lasting legacy. I’m sure these awards will have a positive impact on the lives of many people in the community and will continue to do so for years to come."

People and Places awards grants of between £5001 and £1 million for a broad range of community projects. For further information about the People and Places programme and how you can apply for funding, please visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk and use the ‘Wales’ specific search facility.

For further information on how to obtain contact details for successful projects or interview, filming and photo opportunities, please contact Oswyn Hughes at the Big Lottery Fund press office in Wales on the numbers below.

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 02920 678 207
Out of hours contact: 07760171431
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.

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