Young and old in Thanet will be brought together through volunteering and community projects as part of a new project being awarded Lottery funding today.

The Children’s Society is today awarded £176,221 by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) to run the Thanet Participation Project over the next two years. The grant is from BIG’s Reaching Communities programme, which aims to help improve the lives of communities and people most in need.

The new project will run in Dane Valley, Newington, Whitehall and Birchington and aims to help improve anti-social behaviour and relationships between young people aged 11 – 18 years old and people aged over 55 years old.  It will provide opportunities for young and older people to interact with each other and to understand each other better through activities such as volunteering and training, for example in IT.

Ann Rayment, Programme Manager at The Children’s Society, comments: “This is the first intergenerational project of its kind in Thanet and we are very confident it will help resolve much of the tension between the younger and older generations that currently exists.  During our pilot project, we found that older people are often suspicious and fearful of young people, and the young people in the area feel unfairly treated and stereotyped by adults. This work, generously supported by the Big Lottery Fund, will lead to a far greater understanding and respect between residents of all ages.”

The project aims to be particularly beneficial for young people who are not currently in employment, education or training or who are underachieving at school or at risk of becoming involved in anti-social behaviour.

Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for the South East, said: ”This project is all about building stronger communities by bringing together different generations, through activities that both generations will be able to engage with and benefit from. It is an excellent example of how the Reaching Communities programme enables organisations to support local communities and to bring about positive change for the future.”

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 £23 billion has now been raised and more than 317,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.