WIREDGOV

Young people in Tower Hamlets will be helped to improve community cohesion and prevented from being involved in crime and gang culture, with National Lottery funding from the Big Lottery Fund.

The £279,500 grant to The Celtic FC Foundation is one of fifteen grants being awarded across London today totalling over £4m. The money comes from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme, which aims to help people and communities most in need.

The Breaking Barriers project will use Outreach Workers to build relationships with young people and support them to access services. A range of partners will provide them with a package of mentoring support to help build their skills, confidence and self-esteem and support them to deliver peer led initiatives locally contributing to wider community cohesion.

The project will also deliver a year round package of sports, arts and youth work programming focused on bringing young people together from communities who traditionally do not interact with one another. A weekly programme, locally driven by young people, will be delivered during peak times of crime and related negative behaviour, providing a positive environment for young people to interact and develop. Project staff will provide personal and social development for young people through a range of training and accreditations based around transferable skills and provide support in areas such as communication, presentational skills and motivational skills.

In Brent, The Community Health Action Trust will use the learning from previous projects to identify gaps in service provision for people living with HIV. The grant of £243,415 will help raise awareness through outreach services with the aim of improving the life chances, health and employability of those suffering from HIV as well as helping to reduce the stigma in their local communities.

The project will train, support and involve 40 people living with HIV to become peer volunteers and train them in intensive HIV awareness and other sexual health and treatment updates resulting in a NVQ level two accreditation. Some of the trainees will then volunteer on the project as support workers and others as HIV Awareness and Prevention workers.

HIV awareness sessions and information will be delivered in established community venues such as local businesses, pubs, libraries, hair salons, taxi stations and supermarkets as well as HIV awareness and anti-stigma seminars in colleges, schools and faith congregations. Individuals will be encouraged to take an HIV test and if found to have it they will be supported to start treatment.

A grant of £332,994 will allow the Clear Village Charitable Trust to accomplish phase two ofThe Walled Garden. The Georgian walled garden in Bedfords Park will be transformed into a community food-growing hub to improve local people’s health and wellbeing.

6,000 square metres of unused spaced will be transformed into a productive growing space allowing the project to work with local schools to teach them how to live healthily and eat healthy diets. Members of the community aged over fifty will be engaged through workshops, gardening clubs and volunteering opportunities to enhance their health and well-being and take part in intergenerational work. Partner organisations will offer training and development programmes to long-term unemployed, young offenders and young adults with special needs.

Other grants awarded in London

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Notes to editors

• The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery.
• The Fund 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 its inception in 2004 it has awarded close to £6bn.
• In the year ending 31 Ma