BIG funded learning schemes share in £41 million lottery cash

Innovative learning schemes opening new doors for disadvantaged people across England are claiming their share of 53 awards totalling over £15,256,000 announced today in the latest round of funding made by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG).

Overall 143 awards totalling over £40,994,000 are being made today under BIG’s Reaching Communities programme  which aims to help those most in need and build stronger communities.

Today’s awards will support learning through a variety of diverse projects,  such as theatre workshops for young people to develop creative and communication skills or learning about the local environment, using practical skills such as navigation and cooking. While peer learning projects providing play and development activities for parents with  children under five years, job skills training for the unemployed, IT training courses for older people, reading classes for children and vital rehabilitation schemes for offenders are just some of the wide ranging projects benefiting people of all ages across the country.

Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund’s England Committee, said: “BIG is supporting a diverse range of organisations who are working hard to provide innovative new ways of education and skills learning to help disadvantaged people find employment and volunteering opportunities. We are committed to helping those most in need and look forward to receiving many more applications from groups which share this ethos, whether they are related to health, well being, the environment or building a stronger community.”

One such scheme awarded today, and in the light of recent National Audit Figures announcing a £10 billion annual cost of short stay prisoner re offending, is Warrington Wolves Community Learning and Sport Foundation with £128,794 to fund an innovative mentoring project for young offenders still serving their sentences, and those at risk of offending.  

Aimed at young men aged 18 to 25, the project will deliver a seven week accredited sports leadership course including life skills, communications, first aid, and health, diet and nutrition. The young men, along with their sports coaches, will deliver a range of lunch time and after school sports activities at local primary schools and will also act as mentors to help young people who have displayed anti social behaviour and are at risk of offending.

The scheme aims to reduce rates of re offending by engaging young men through learning to enable them to gain new skills, boost confidence and increase motivation to seek positive life chances beyond their sentence.

Natalie Hargreaves, Fundraising and Development Manager said: "We ran a pilot project in 2009 and it was fantastic to see the positive impact that the courses had on the lads, with one young man even coming to visit us on his release to take up some voluntary work! It went so well that both myself and representatives from Thorn Cross decided to apply to the BIG Lottery Fund and we are thrilled to have been awarded the funds.

“We hope that on their release they will go on to find voluntary or paid work within the leisure industry rather than venturing back to crime and illegal activity'.

Providing vital early years learning support, Reading Quest receives £285,906 to help children who struggle at school because they cannot read. Operating in deprived parts of East Oxford and Cowley, The Children and Parents Learning Project provides one-to-one literacy tuition to children. Led by parents and teachers, the project aims to address the links between educational failure and anti-social behaviour and exclusion. Underprivileged children struggling with the early stages of reading will be targeted to help prevent long-term emotional, behavioural and social problems.

Penny Tyack, Founder of Reading Quest, said: “Since we heard the news of Big Lottery Funding everyone at Reading Quest has been grinning from ear-to-ear. This generous grant will enable us to help 750 children realise their educational potential. It comes as a huge relief to the children, schools, teachers and tutors, that this highly valued programme is now secure for the next five years.”

Also awarded today is Hibbert Community Regeneration Centre Ltd with £107,265 for The New Learning Horizons project to provide support, training and development opportunities for BME women in Bolton, Lancashire. The project, which includes IT and language training, parent and child activities, cooking and child care, aims to help enable Asian women improve their employability and independence, and to take part in local community activities and become involved in local decision-making processes such as council area forums, school governorships, and electoral processes.

The New Learning Horizons project manager Hanif Ali said: 'We are absolutely delighted with the funding for our 'New Learning Horizons' project! This project will not only focus on getting marginalised Asian women into learning activities and training but look much further than that. As the project title suggests, we will help women to set new goals and look beyond barriers to integration and personal development.

In West Sussex, Brighton Housing Trust is awarded £439,794 to set up an intensive training and employment project to open doors for homeless people and those living in insecure accommodation. Work-based activities will be held alongside training, peer support and workshops to help people develop the confidence, self-esteem and motivation to get into work.  In Suffolk, young people will get the chance to develop new skills in conservation and craft activities after the Green Light Trust received a grant of £83,598. Activities such as identifying tree species, shelter building, and cooking, mulching and basic repairs will lead to skills like group working, health and safety awareness, hand tool use, navigational skills, activity planning and report writing.

The Quay Steps Project in Poole Dorset receives £311,019 to run personal development workshops for socially excluded young people aged 16-25 covering anger management, healthy relationships, building self-esteem, arts and sports, along with basic skills, such as cooking, nutrition, and IT and employment training. While Workers Educational Association Birmingham receives £327,596 to fund health education courses to improve the health of disadvantaged adults in inner city Birmingham. Activities will include keep fit, aerobics, healthy heart courses, women's health, confidence and assertiveness courses, and chair based exercises for older people.

Sanjay Dighe, added: “For 2010/11 we have at least £100 million available in England to make grants between £10,000 and £500,000 to a wide range of good causes. Anyone wanting to find out more about the recently improved Reaching Communities programme and how to apply can visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_reaching_communities.”

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- 74KB for full list of learning and skills projects funded across England today:

For a full list of Reaching Communities awards made today across England please visit the Big Lottery Fund Website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

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

• Under Reaching Communities, the Big Lottery Fund awards grants between £10,000 and £500,000 to projects that offer people better life chances, build stronger communities, develop improved rural and urban environments and improve health and well being.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally 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 £24 billion has now been raised and more than 330,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.