- Area:
- Wales
- Programme:
- People and Places
- Release date:
- 17 2 2012
A project backed by Welsh Football stars to boot racism into touch and a community film initiative are among the range of projects throughout Wales sharing in more than £4 million awarded by the Big Lottery Fund today.
A total of £4,192,732 has been awarded to a range of projects under the latest round of the Big Lottery Fund’s (BIG) People and Places programme, which aims to bring people together to make communities stronger and to improve rural and urban environments (For a selection of awards, click 
here
- 46KB).
Issues over racism, particularly in football, haven’t been far away from the front pages of the newspapers or our TV screens lately. That’s why an award of £472,023 will enable Show Racism the Red Card to expand on their existing work in Wales by educating young people and teachers against racism. The project is currently funded through the People and Places programme and the additional funding will be spent on making even more people aware of diversity and the effects of racism and enable them to challenge racism and promote equality. The money will be spent on delivering more anti-racism workshops, conferences for teachers, schools and sports clubs throughout Wales and awareness raising activities to young people through the medium of sport. Swansea’s Premier League football stars, Nathan Dyer and Neil Taylor recently became patrons for the project.
In a show of support for the campaign, Wales and Cardiff City striker, Robert Earnshaw, who is also a Patron for Show Racism the Red Card, said: “I’ve been involved with Show Racism the Red Card for a while now and I’m glad to be part of it. Kids only learn from what the adults teach them, so it’s important that we teach as many as we can that there’s no room for racism in football or society.”
“I’ve encountered abuse in most countries I’ve visited whether that’s Serbia, Montenegro, Italy or Spain. We probably do more to tackle racism here than most other countries but it’s important for organisations like Show Racism the Red card to spread the word that it’s not acceptable. There’s still more work to be done, even in Wales.”
Highlighting the importance of the funding, Sunil Patel, a Campaign Manager with Show Racism the Red Card, said: “The Big Lottery Fund award will enable us to expand our activities and broaden our remit through educating young people and adults.”
“We will also focus our continued partnership work with football clubs and their players. The current issues clearly highlight the amount of work that still needs to be done both inside and outside of stadiums and we are grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for this award.”
The industrial town of Port Talbot has long been regarded as a production line for producing world famous actors including household names such as Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen and Rob Brydon to name but a few. Now, thanks to grant of a quarter of a million pounds awarded to The Film Agency for Wales, the movies will literally be coming to Neath Port Talbot. The Film Agency for Wales will use the money to run and develop a three year community film project in the Afan Valley, with the aim of providing the whole community with access to film.
A mobile cinema will be created, set up, and run by volunteers. Film screenings will be held in various locations across the region, making use of existing underutilised school and community buildings, and training opportunities will underpin the project which will upskill key workers within the community to use and teach with film. Part of the money will be used to fund a fully equipped mobile cinema van and for subsidised film screenings.
Looking forward to getting the project underway, Interim Chief Executive of The Film Agency for Wales, Suzanne Alizart, said: “The Film@Afan programme will enable a community to develop a rich and varied programme of film activity, promoting social inclusion and entrepreneurial thinking through creative development.
“By the end of the three year project, we will have helped grow a self-sustaining mobile cinema model within one of the most deprived areas of Wales. We hope it will become a blueprint for the development of future schemes in other communities and help make film a catalyst for growth in rural areas of Wales. The project will also contribute to the on-going advocacy campaign for increased investment in film and media literacy: key skills everyone should have access to in the 21st century.
“Most importantly, in an area where traditional industries are dying out and unemployment levels are high, this project could offer people the chance to embark on new pathways within the growing creative sector by encouraging an appetite for film and thinking creatively about how to make use of existing resources. Of course, it is also a chance for people to come together and enjoy the great communal experience offered by film. We are looking forward to working with all our partners in this project.”
Highlighting the importance of the People and Places programme, Big Lottery Fund Wales Committee Member and Chair of the People and Places Committee, Gareth Newton, said: “Programmes like People and Places are making a difference to the lives of so many people in communities across Wales. It delivers on our promise to use National Lottery funding to regenerate and revitalise communities, tackle disadvantage head on and leave a lasting legacy.”
The 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/wales
Further Information
Big Lottery Fund Press Office – Oswyn Hughes: 02920 678 207
Out of hours contact: 07760 171 431
Public Enquiries Line: 0300 123 0735
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
- 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 £26 billion has now been raised and more than 330,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
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