- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- People and Places
- Release date:
- 18 12 2007
Projects to refurbish community centres across Wales and the development of facilities to help vulnerable members of society are among a number of projects throughout the country to benefit from a £3 million cash injection, announced today under the Big Lottery Fund’s People and Places programme.
From Denbighshire in North Wales, to Neath Port Talbot in the South, thirteen community projects throughout the country are benefiting from the £2,940,272 cash roll out, which aims to bring people together to make communities stronger and to improve rural and urban environments.
Projects to benefit today include the regeneration of community centres, funding to improve recreational facilities for children and young people to reduce anti-social behaviour, projects to support carers and projects that support homeless people.
In Blaenau Gwent, The Llanhilleth Miners Institute Ltd will spend their award of £410,094 to help restore the magnificent Llanhilleth Miners Institute building and provide a community facility that provides cultural and social activities for the St Illtyd’s ward in Blaenau Gwent.
Based in Bangor but serving the counties of Conwy, Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey, the Gwasanaeth Cynnal Gofalwyr organisation will spend their award of nearly £250,000 on a project to assist and support carers in the three counties to plan for emergencies. The project will employ Emergency Planning Officers to work with individual carers and groups of carers to identify systems that could be activated in times of crisis.
It’s all fun and games in Neath Port Talbot, as the Tonnau Community Primary School will spend their award of £100,319 to create a brand-new floodlit multi use games area on a disused piece of land within the community school. This will provide a facility for all year round community activity, participation and will also benefit wider-communities.
Homeless, marginalised vulnerable and scoially excluded people in Denbighshire, North East Wales, will have somewhere to go for support and advice, thanks to a grant of £634,126, awarded to the SOVA organisation in Rhyl. They plan to use the money to expand the current Dewi Sant Centre services to provide a one stop shop and day centre offering statutory and voluntary sector support, advice and guidance to people. They hope to promote, encourage and assist their access to appropriate services and resources in order to achieve life changing opportunities. The project is aimed mainly at people in the Rhyl West Ward, many of whom are homeless or have no permanent address, but does not exclude people from other wards in the area.
Commenting on the positive impact the awards will have on the communities throughout Wales, Big Lottery Fund Wales Committee Member and Chair of the People and Places Committee, Janet Reed, 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."
The £66 million People and Places programme awards grants of between £5,001 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 about the projects and to obtain contact details for the individuals and organisations involved, please contact the Big Lottery Fund press office on the numbers below.
Full list of projects:
| Organisation | Location | Project summary | Amount |
| Llanhilleth Miners Institute Ltd | Based Llanhilleth serving the Llanhilleth ward of Blaenau Gwent | The project will restore the Llanhilleth Miners Institute to provide a community facility providing cultural and social activities for the St Illtyd's ward in Blaenau Gwent. | £410,094 |
| Chooselife Cymru | Based in Llanelli, serving Carmarthenshire and Dyfed Powys | The project is for a Capital Development grant relating to an extension above the existing Chooselife centre to enable the services to expand and develop. The extension will be used for a training suite/room hire facilities, a day centre and a family centre. The aim of the project is to help and support substance misusers and their families to become fully integrated back into society. | £25,000 |
| Llanmiloe Community Association | Llanmiloe, Carmarthenshire | Llanmiloe Community Resource Centre project is to renovate and refurbish a disused building for the community to use as a resource centre, meeting space and community cafe and to develop a community garden. | £86,990 |
| Newchurch Community Association | Newchurch, Carmarthen | The project is to renovate and refurbish an old schoolroom to provide a community centre and meeting place for the village of Newchurch. | £183,460 |
| Gwasanaeth Cynnal Gofalwyr | Based in Bangor, serving Conwy, Gwynedd and Ynys Mon | The project will support carers in Conwy, Gwynedd and Ynys Mon by assisting them to plan for emergencies. The project will employ Emergency Planning Officers to work with individual carers and groups of carers to identify systems that could be activated in times of crisis. | £249,339 |
| Tonnau Community Primary School | Tonna, Neath Port Talbot | Create a new floodlit multi use games area (18.5x36m) upon a redundant area of land within the community school. Grant would be used to create a foundation on different land, an enclosed environment for all year round community activity and participation. Grant also to assist with professional fees associated with project development. The facility will augment current Out of School Hours Activity on the school site and benefit the wider-communities. Facility to be available from 9.00am-9.00pm, 7 days a week according to demand. | £100,319 |
| Parish of Port Talbot, St Theodore | Port Talbot | The project is to make the whole unit of the Parish Hall accessible to everyone within the community, to make an open and welcoming environment to all, who can then use the facilities that the hall offers as a meeting place which is both safe and pleasant to use. This will be essential to voluntary organisations in the area, as it is the only community hall within the electoral ward of Port Talbot. | £245,865 |
| Amroth Parish Hall Committee | Summerhill, near Tenby, Pembrokeshire | The project will replace the existing parish hall to provide a modern facility to meet the needs of the community. | £114,289 |
| Newton Village Community Hall Committee | Newton, near Mumbles | The project is to contribute towards providing a fully accessible fit for purpose community building. | £81,060 |
| Gendros Community Centre | Gendros, Swansea | The project is to improve the natural built and community environment within the Gendros community by working with children and young people to develop play and recreational facilities to reduce anti-social behaviour within the community. | £237,059 |
| The Prime Trust (Cymru) | Powys, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire | The project will support older people living in Powys, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. The Rural Challenge coordinators will publicise the scheme and then identify, train and offer support to older people who wish to volunteer their time to act as volunteers within projects of benefit to the wider local community in these four rural counties. | £445,000 |
| SOVA | Based in and serving mainly West Rhyl | The project is to expand current Dewi Sant Centre services to provide a one stop shop and day centre offering statutory and voluntary sector support, advice and guidance to people who are socially excluded, marginalised and vulnerable with a view to promoting, encouraging and assisting their access to appropriate services and resources in order to achieve life changing opportunities. The project is aimed mainly at people in Rhyl West Ward, many of whom are homeless or have no permanent address, but does not exclude people from other wards in the area. | £634,126 |
| Trefnu Cymunedol Cymru (TCC) Together Creating Communities | Based in Wrexham, serving Wrexham, Denbighshire and Flintshire | The project will employ a participatory budgeting organiser to engage local people in decision making about how money is spent in their local community. The organiser will gain agreement from the budget holder (e.g. the community council) on a proportion of the budget for which spending can be decided by local people and then work with local people and organisations to achieve a consensus on how this money will be spent. | £127,671 |
Further information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office – Oswyn Hughes: 02920 678 207
Out of hours contact: 07760 171 431
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102 030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.
Notes to Editors
- In Wales, the Big Lottery Fund is rolling out close to £1 million a week 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 £20 billion has now been raised and more than 250,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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