Lottery lends a hand to integrate and support ethnic minorities in Wales

Area:

Wales

Programme:

People and Places

Release date:

18 10 2007

Eighteen community projects in Wales are benefiting from the £3,991,729 cash roll out, which aims to bring people together to make communities stronger and to improve rural and urban environments. Over £600,000 of the money has been awarded to four projects that help integrate and support ethnic minorities in the communities of Newport and Swansea in South Wales.

The Newport Chinese Community Centre will spend their award of £159,914 on continuing with their good work at the drop-in facility in the city. The project also received nearly £60,000 from BIG back in 2004, to help them move into their current premises and cope with the demand in the community. The latest funding will allow the centre to provide the 300 or so members with continued access to help, advice, support and to signpost them to appropriate services.

One person who can vouch for the importance of the services offered by the centre is 60-year-old Fookwan Chung, who moved to South Wales from Hong Kong over 30 years ago. Explaining the difference the project has had on his life, Fookwan, said: “I worked long hours as a chef in a Chinese restaurant, which meant I didn’t have much time to learn to read and write in English or speak it,” he said.

“The classes at the centre have made life easier where filling in forms, shopping and communicating with people on the street are concerned. It would have been difficult to learn without the help of the centre.”  

Funding from People and Places will also help tackle the problem of drug abuse among black ethnic minorities in Newport. With their award of £241,070, Newlink Wales, an independent substance misuse organisation, will develop a Black and Minority Ethnic drug information service in the city, allowing for an enhanced community knowledge of prevention and treatments.

The Chinese community in Swansea also benefits from the awards. The Swansea Chinese Community Co Op Centre will use their grant of £133,942 on promoting healthier lifestyles among the community and the 400 or so members who use the service.

Children and adults from ethnic minority backgrounds in Swansea will also receive more support to integrate into the community and will be introduced to local open access play provision, thanks to a grant of £72,555. The City and Council of Swansea will spend the money on employing a full time Play Development worker to overlook the three year project.

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 £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 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.

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 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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