An organisation set up in the wake of the deaths of Damilola Taylor and Victoria Climbie is embarking on a new project to safeguard vulnerable children from abuse, exploitation and harm, thanks to a lottery grant of £402,298 announced today.

The Big Lottery Fund is awarding a total of six grants to organisations in London from its Reaching Communities programme, in funding worth £1,797,470.

Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (AFRUCA), will work with African families across London to raise awareness of child protection issues, concentrating on the boroughs of Waltham Forest, Haringey, Croydon and Harrow.

The scheme will promote positive parenting among African parents across London and help foster a better understanding of UK laws on child protection. It will produce information products on child safeguarding, including brochures and DVDs, to support a programme of advice surgeries and local road-shows.

AFRUCA Executive Director Debbie Ariyo said: “In London, the growing number of cases of child trafficking, witchcraft abuse, female genital mutilation and other cases are causes of concern to us at AFRUCA. Most of these issues however are steeped in cultural practices. It is important to begin to address this issue through a systematic training process that will provide increased knowledge and enable parents to balance culture with child protection.

“This will help to ensure that child protection becomes everybody's business in our community and that everyone can identify the indicators of child abuse and develop the basic skills to help keep children safe.

“We are expecting to train 240 parents each year during the lifetime of this five year project as well as ten families each year who are actually going through the child protection system.”

Elsewhere in London, Status Employment Limited, based in Croydon, will use £128,264 to help get people with mental health issues into employment.

Status Employment Chief Executive Robert Elston said: “Funding for two and a half employment consultant posts will mean help for candidates who are often excluded from mainstream society to find employment. More importantly we will be able to provide support whilst in employment, a service that employers often find extremely helpful.”

Another project working to support people with mental health concerns is the Revolving Doors Agency, which receives £499,914 for a project in Islington to build self-esteem and confidence and enhance community relationships.

Africa Policy Research Network, gets £263,859 to set up focus groups in Hounslow, Ealing, Hillingdon, Hammersmith, Brent and Harrow that will develop strategies to address harmful African traditional cultural practices, such as female genital mutilation and exorcism rituals, that contravene the rights of children and young people.

In the London Borough of Ealing, the Somali Women’s Refugee Centre will use an award of £383,135 to run a welfare advice service. Issues covered will include benefit entitlement, nationality and immigration issues and access to services.

Finally, in the East End of London, homeless people will be helped to access mainstream healthcare services by Medecin du Monde UK, thanks to a grant of £120,000.

Debbie Pippard, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for London said: “Reaching Communities aims to support the most vulnerable people in our society with funding for projects that will really get to grips with the issues affecting our city today.”

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
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

• The Big Lottery Fund rolls out close to £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours, which together with other Lottery distributors means that across the UK 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.
• On 1 December 2006 the Big Lottery Fund was officially established by Parliament and at the same time assumed the residual responsibilities of the dissolved National Lottery Charities Board (Community Fund) the New Opportunities Fund, and the Millennium Commission. The Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to Good Causes. As a result, over £19.5 billion has now been raised and more than 250,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
• Reaching Communities is part of the Big Lottery Fund’s portfolio of new programmes. Following an intense and comprehensive process of consultation with stakeholders and the general public over the last year, the Fund has undertaken to distribute 60-70% of its funding to the third sector.  At least one-third of BIG funding will be demand-led and lightly prescribed.  In England, this will amount to at least £600 million over the period 2005-2009. This commitment will be met from a variety of funding streams, including, Reaching Communities, Awards for All, part of the Young People’s Fund, Community Buildings, Advice Services and the People’s Millions.
• UK-wide, the Big Lottery Fund will distribute through its new programmes and allocations funding worth over £2.6bn between now and April 2009. Regularly updated information on the Big Lottery Fund’s new programmes is available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/publications.htm