- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- Community Voice
- Release date:
- 10 2 2012
Community groups throughout Wales are sharing more than £300,000 awarded by the Big Lottery Fund today to help them develop projects which aim to give their communities a stronger voice.
Fifteen projects across Wales share a total of £314,115 in development grants awarded under the first round of the Big Lottery Fund’s (BIG) £12 million Community Voice programme, which aims to help Welsh communities influence policies and decisions that affect them.
Spearheaded by their local County Voluntary Councils (CVCs), each project will now develop their proposals and apply for the second round of funding which will award £500,000 - £1.5 million for projects which build the opportunities for citizens to engage in planning and running services and projects that respond to their communities’ needs and advance community benefit.
Working in partnership with a wide range of organisations and stakeholders including residents, local authorities and health boards, the CVC’s will be expected to develop projects that can influence local decisions such as developing an effective community voice for minority groups, disabled people, young people and other hard to reach groups.
In Anglesey, North Wales, Medrwn Môn will spend their £25,000 on developing their proposals to deliver 10 projects over four years to encourage older,, young, disabled and homeless people, disadvantaged and under represented groups and communities to develop skills and confidence to enable them to engage with service providers and participate in the planning and delivery of services on the island.
Further East, NEWVOL in Denbighshire will spend £22,600 on developing their initiative for running a portfolio of six projects across the county which will target vulnerable women and young people and the communities of Bruton Park, Upper Denbigh and West and South Rhyl.
In Ceredigion, a grant of £23,753 to the Ceredigion Association of Voluntary Organisations will help them develop their inspiration (aspiration?) to run seven projects across the county which will target disengaged citizens including carers, people with mental health issues, younger people and those with visual impairment.
In the neighbouring County of Pembrokeshire, the Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services will also use their award of £22,028 to develop a project to involve disengaged members of the community, whether that’s for geographical reasons or for specific groups including carers, people with mental health issues, younger people and those with visual impairments.
As the Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations (GAVO) covers four local authority areas, they can make two applications and have been awarded two development grants. One project encompasses the counties of Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly where a grant of £22,156 will be spent on developing proposals for a portfolio of eight projects which will revolve around bringing service users together to share knowledge, experience and best practice. The project will target groups including people with learning disabilities and mental health issues, older people, stroke survivors, hard to reach tenants, families and rural communities.
Another development grant of £22,156 will enable GAVO to develop proposals to run a project which will target groups in Newport and Monmouthshire, including older people, stroke survivors, hard to reach tenants, people affected by mental illness and learning disabilities, black and minority ethnic young people, people with sensory impairment and children and families.
BIG’s Wales’ Director John Rose said: “This programme provides more of an opportunity for Welsh communities to get their voice heard. It is about people speaking out to influence the decisions that affect their community and their own lives.
“We want this programme to support them to become more sustainable and resilient to future economic, social and environmental challenges as well as developing a stronger sense of community.”
For further information about the Big Lottery Fund and how you can apply for funding, please visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/wales or phone 0300 123 0735.
For a full list of projects, click 
here
- 54KB.
Further Information
Oswyn Hughes - Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 02920 678 207
Out of Hours Contact: 07760 171 431
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Notes to Editors
- In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out around £100,000 a day in Lottery good cause money, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across Wales 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. It was 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 given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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