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National Family Week’s Big Family Idea competition announces three winners to receive a cut of the £150k funding put forward by the Big Lottery Fund

As part of the first ever National Family Week in May this year, a competition was launched with the aim of finding a new idea that would improve family life in the UK. National Family Week partnered with the Big Lottery Fund who pledged to provide £150,000 towards turning the winning idea(s) into a reality. National Family Week and the Big Lottery Fund can now announce the three winning ideas.

The competition was open to individuals and organisations within the UK and hundreds of ideas were received including from individuals, charities, companies, local authorities, sporting organisations and community centres.  A panel of judges selected three winning ideas that they felt would have a significant impact in improving family life across the UK.

‘Chef-in-a-van’ was put forward by family dietician, Livia La Camera from Lewisham, whose idea was based on recognising that often with limited time, energy and know-how, it can be a tricky task to think up a nutritious family meal day after day.  Livia proposed a mobile chef-in-a-van that would provide live demonstrations, free recipe sheets and fresh produce at a discounted price and would visit various locations including under-privileged neighbourhoods, schools and community centres. Livia said; “For many years, I have met people who want to cook but don't know how to do it.  My dream to demonstrate healthy home-cooking has now come true.  I am absolutely thrilled about being able to engage families in their neighbourhood and inspire them, in a fun and novel way, to cook quick and simple healthy meals.”

‘Celebrating Our Alley Gates’ was proposed by Christine Ricard of the Whalley Range Forum in Manchester. The Whalley Range Forum had registered with Keep Britain Tidy’s Big Tidy Up and proposed ending the clean up with a ‘Celebrate Our Alley Gates’ party for all their neighbours. Christine suggested involving neighbouring streets whose alleys had recently been gated to encourage as many people as possible to follow in their footsteps. Christine Ricard said; “We are a very diverse neighbourhood with a wide variety of ages lifestyles and cultures. We want to get to know more about each other to build respect between the different ages and cultures within our area. Winning the Big Family Idea will provide us with the fantastic opportunity to showcase our work and help achieve our aim of getting to know each other even better, sharing resources and ideas and making the neighbourhood a more family-friendly place.”

The final idea to be selected was put forward by the National Trust who proposed a ‘Family Volunteering’ programme, particularly looking to engage a non-traditional Trust audience. With the aim of partnering with organisations such as Gingerbread, the programme would provide families who might not normally have the opportunity to visit National Trust sites with the chance to do so and receive a behind the scenes experience. Family Volunteering would also provide opportunities for families to get more involved with the work of the Trust, through hands on activities, helping the Trust develop their family offer and also bringing fantastic benefits to the volunteers.  Mark Crosby, Head of Volunteering at The National Trust said; “Family Volunteering enables families to spend quality time together, play games, have meals together and join in educational activities – fantastic benefits in a world where many are deprived of such time.”

£150,000 of Big Lottery Fund good causes money will be used to fund pilots of all three projects with the view to the success of these resulting in the projects expanding, improving family life all across the UK.  Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund England Committee and BIG Family Idea judge, said: "Congratulations to the winners, I'm certain they'll all be a huge success in bringing families together through a range of fun and educational activities. There's a lot of work now to be done to make these ideas a reality but I'm looking forward to watching them flourish and becoming valuable assets for many, many families to enjoy."

National Family Week is an annual, national celebration of family and family life. National Family Week 2010 will take place from 31 May to 6 June, with thousands of fun activities for families to enjoy all across the UK.  For further information, log on to www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk.

Further Information

For further information on the Big Family Idea or to arrange interviews with the winners, please contact Gemma Fordham: T: 020 7871 0189 E: gemma@nationalfamilyweek.co.uk

Notes to Editors

About National Family Week

• National Family Week is a new national celebration of family and family life. The first ever National Family Week ran between the 25th and 31st May 2009 offering families all across the country the opportunity to enjoy over 4,000 events as well as competitions, offers and promotions.
• National Family Week is already the largest coalition on family issues in the UK, supported by over 160 national organisations including the NSPCC, Women’s Institute, Parent Teacher Association, National Literacy Trust and Change4Life, and is endorsed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and David Cameron as well as many influential celebrities. The Week promotes healthy active lifestyles and encourages families to spend more quality time together.
• No two families are alike and National Family Week celebrates diversity, supporting a range of initiatives to improve rights for families of every shape and size.
• National Family Week 2010 will take place between 31st May and 6th June. Theme days include the Family Week Picnic, Family Week Story Time and Family Week Sports Day.

About The Big Lottery Fund

• 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 £22 billion has now been raised and more than 317,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.