A scheme to provide support to parents and carers of disabled children in North Somerset, and a Bristol-based mental health theatre company are two of five South West projects sharing more than £500,000 in grants from Big Lottery Fund today.

The money comes from BIG’s Reaching Communities programme, which supports projects that improve the lives of people across England.

Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for the South West, Mark Cotton, said: “Projects receiving awards under the Reaching Communities programme today are providing vital services in the region, from information and advice for disadvantaged groups to help them gain practical and emotional support, to activities that empower them to improve their life skills and overcome disadvantage.”

The Springboard Opportunity Group in North Somerset receives £135,724 for its support service aimed at the parents and carers of pre-school age children with disabilities including physical and mental disabilities, sensory impairment, autistic spectrum disorder and communication and socialisation difficulties.

The project will allow the group to provide parents and carers with much needed advice and information, signposting to appropriate support services and practical and emotional support. They will run family support sessions at the group’s centres in Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare and advice and training workshops on specific topics such as problems relating to behaviour and child development. They will also offer one-to-one advice and home visits as appropriate.

Ann Ramsey, Springboard’s Development Officer, said: “This grant will be a massive help to the parents and other carers of pre-school age disabled children who use our services. Now we can provide the information, training and support that will enable them to give their children the best possible start in life. Reducing parents’ isolation, anxiety and stress will greatly benefit the whole family.”

A grant of £79,637 goes to the Bristol-based Stepping Out Theatre Company, the country’s leading mental health theatre company, which offers people in Bristol and the South West with mental health difficulties the opportunity to take part in creative workshops, theatre training and performances, plus a range of social activities. As well as promoting inclusion and social interaction, the theatre aims to help members develop life skills and build their confidence and independence, which can help to alleviate conditions such as anxiety, stress and depression.

In the last ten years the group has mounted 21 productions, including a range of work with mental health themes to help raise awareness of and break down stigma attached to mental illness. They have performed regularly in Bristol and taken productions to theatres in London, Bath and Cardiff as well as performing inside hospitals, day centres and at mental health events. They will use the grant to offer the experience of seeing and taking part in their workshops and productions to even more people over the next five years, including people at a local medium-secure unit.

Development Worker, Steve Hennessy, said: “This grant gives us the opportunity to greatly expand and develop our work. It also gives us an unprecedented period of stability and the opportunity to learn, build and grow year on year without the constant strain of trying to raise funds and never knowing what the next year will bring.”

The Crime Concern Trust receives £232,386 to continue and develop the Bristol-based Barton Hill Youth Inclusion Programme, a crime prevention programme run in conjunction with the Youth Justice Board. The project works with 50 young people from different backgrounds who have engaged in crime or are at risk of offending, truancy, or social exclusion and targets issues such as drug use, family breakdown and learning difficulties.

Also in the region, the Red Room Pre-school Playgroup, Chewton Mendip, will use an award of £48,098 to extend its facilities, allowing it to increase the number of places available to children and offering a venue to the local village toddler group.

And Age Concern Ilfracombe & District has been awarded £27,000 for its project aimed at elderly people in the community, which provides the services and support needed to allow them to continue to live in their own homes with independence and dignity.

Further information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
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

• 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. 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 280,000 grants given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.