Seven million ‘Stepping Stones’ in the right direction for South East Wales

Area:

Wales

Programme:

Stepping Stones

Release date:

17 1 2008

Four community projects in South East Wales are benefiting from the £6,964,487 cash roll out, which will support projects that act as stepping-stones for people with significant barriers to learning to acquire the life skills that will enable them to manage their lives, contribute to their communities, re-engage in learning, volunteering and employment.

Projects to benefit today include grants to support young pregnant mothers and people with disabilities learning to live more independently as well as new opportunities for the homeless and people from black and ethnic minority communities in Cardiff and Newport.

Highlighting the importance of the programme, Big Lottery Fund Wales Country Chair, Huw Vaughan Thomas, said: “There is very little funding available for informal life skills work but Stepping Stones aims to fill that void. These projects will make a big difference in communities by enabling people to function independently, communicate and integrate with others and help them adopt healthy behaviours. In turn, these skills will help them participate in community life and maximise their training and employment opportunities.”

An award of nearly one million pounds (£998,354) will allow the Royal Mencap Society to kick start the ‘Go For It’ project. This is a new project aimed at providing intensive support for young people aged 19-25 with learning disabilities in Southeast & Southwest Wales. Whilst this is aimed at enabling the beneficiaries to get into employment, it has recognised that some of the biggest barriers for the target group are a lack of life skills - such as interpersonal skills, time management, an understanding of how to use public transport, as well as a lack of confidence.  

In the Welsh capital, Cardiff, young pregnant women aged 16-19 and young mothers aged 16-21, who are living in supported accommodation or re-housed from hostel accommodation, will learn new skills and improve their confidence, thanks to an award of £856,696 to The Women's Workshop Cardiff Training Centre Ltd.  The ‘Newlife’ project will provide an intensive five year support programme for beneficiaries that will target isolation, disengagement and deprivation. The project will provide practical life skills learning, which will enable beneficiaries to access volunteering opportunities or work placements to use the skills they have learned.

With their award of £998,841, over five years, The Scarman Trust will aim to promote cohesion between cultures in Cardiff and Newport by working with 22 local partner community organisations. 'Switched On' is a new project that will deliver a range of personal development programmes and basic skills training through informal learning programmes, courses and one to one or group support sessions. The target beneficiaries are black and ethnic minority communities, people who are homeless, travellers or newly arrived. The courses will be delivered in three deprived inner city wards of Cardiff (Butetown, Adamstown, Grangetown, Riverside) and from two wards in Newport (Pill, Victoria).

Based in Cardiff and enveloping six local authority areas in South East Wales, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People will splash £303,180 on the ‘Young Adult Transitions’ project. This is a pilot project targeted at young deaf and hard of hearing adults aged 16 to 30. It will provide a life skills service in South East Wales (Cardiff, Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire and Torfaen). The project will be highly intensive, more often on a one-to-one basis, for those with greatest need, especially those with complex additional needs, such as mental health problems, drug and alcohol dependency and physical disability. The project will help individuals develop self-confidence and independence, and developing lifeskills to access employment or volunteering.

For further information about the Big Lottery Fund and how your group can apply for funding, log onto the Big Lottery Fund website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk. For further information about the projects, and contact details for the groups 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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