- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- Awards for All Wales
- Release date:
- 21 3 2012
In the 1998 American drama film, The Horse Whisperer, Robert Redford plays a talented trainer with a remarkable gift for understanding horses, who is hired to help an injured teenager and her horse back to health following a tragic accident.
Now, thanks to a grant of £5,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme and using similar techniques highlighted in the film, a pioneering new charity based in Gwynedd, North Wales, aims to use equine assisted therapy to help some of the most disadvantaged children to develop confidence, communications skills and self-esteem that can enhance their prospect of future employment.
A total of 56 community-based projects across Wales share in the £203,423 awarded under the latest round of the Awards for All small grants programme today (full list of awards at the end of the release).
With their award of £5,000, The Penytrip Project based at Pen y Trip Farm, Porthmadog, will run a new equine assisted therapy project - the first of its kind in Wales. Disadvantaged and socially excluded young people with anger managemnet and behavioural issues will be designated a rescued horse or pony to work with under the supervision of a trained equine therapist at the farm.
Through a technique known as ‘horse whispering', they will train and form a bond of trust with their horse. And as they begin to understand the effect that their tone of voice, breathing and body language can have on another living creature, powerful changes in behavioural issues, anger management and levels of self esteem will be seen.
Highlighting the importance of the project, which will start in April, Lindsey Mitchell, the Project Manager, said: “We’re quite a new project and the money will enable us to run a pilot to identify if there is a need for this kind of project here. With this block of funding we will be working with fifteen young children.”
“This project will be running for six months and we’re hoping to work with children from pupil referral units, social services or who are currently in the care system. We will teach them to use their body language and their voices to have a positive influence on the horses and ponies. This will benefit young people with behaviour and anger management issues because they have to learn to be quite calm here. It’s also good for young people who are nervous because they have to be quite assertive and look after themselves.
“We try and tailor our programmes to work with children with a wide variety of needs to help improve their lives. There is a paralell between the film here with regards to the horse and the little girls in the film helping each other to heal. We have horses who have problems and children who have problems. We wouldn’t have been able to start this project without funding from the National Lottery. We hope to expand this project if the pilot is successful to include eighty children a year from different areas of Wales.”
In Denbighshire, a grant of £1,375 will enable the West Meliden Residents Association to run the Street Surfin in Meliden project. Street Surfers use specially designed boards which combine the natural fluidity of surfing with the smooth manoeuvrability of snowboarding and skating. The project will provide street surfing sessions for young people and families.
Outlining the benefits of the project, Mr Robert Paterson, the Chair of West Meliden Residents Association, said: “As it is not possible to provide a skate park in the short term it has been agreed that the group will provide street surfing sessions as an ideal introduction which could be put into place quickly as it can be carried out in the multi use games area.”
“We have six volunteers who will receive training which will enable them to teach street surfing, provide safety evaluations and maintain the equipment that will be needed to run the project. This will enable young people to learn new skills and enjoy physical activity outdoors at no cost which will develop their self confidence. The volunteers will receive training which will lead to accreditation and encourage them to participate in other activities for young people.”
And highlighting the diversity of the projects funded through the Awards for All programme, the Troedyrhiw Environemntal Forum in Merthyr Tydfil will spend £1,950 on constructing a recycled bottle green house whilst the Newtown Air Training Corps 2416 Squadron in Powys will spend £5,000 on enabling their cadets to undertake training courses in the use of IT and gain skills in target shooting.
Gareth Williams, Awards for All Programme Manager for BIG in Wales, said: “Awards for All is having a positive impact throughout Wales. Money is helping to establish groups, societies and clubs, promoting learning, increasing volunteering opportunities and helping to build stronger communities.”
Available in English and Welsh, the application form for the programme can be downloaded, completed and emailed direct to the Big Lottery Fund as well as being available in hard copy.
Application forms are available from www.awardsforall.org.uk or by phone on 0845 4 10 20 30.
A full list of grants being announced in Wales today
- 33KB.
Further Information
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 close to £100,000 a day in National 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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