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A vital regeneration scheme bringing a wealth of new opportunities for one of the most deprived areas in England is the 1000th award made under the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme.

One of BIG’s most popular programmes, Reaching Communities has awarded to date close to £218 million to improve the lives of people in need across England.

Since its inception the Reaching Communities Programme has continued to deliver 60 – 70% of its funding to the voluntary and community sector, ensuring that people have better chances in life, access to training and development, improved life skills and environments, and enjoy healthier and more active communities.

Receiving the 1000th award today, Easington Colliery Regeneration Partnership- People and their Parks, County Durham are among 24 projects in this latest round of awards sharing in almost £4,700,000 to support disadvantaged people across the country.

Big Lottery Fund England Chair, Sanjay Dighe said, "Today’s announcement celebrates the 1000th award made through our Reaching Communities programme. This benchmark award is a true reflection of the huge number of excellent projects across the country now funded under Reaching Communities. The People and Their Parks project is yet another brilliant example of how Lottery funding can help bring people together, and I am delighted the 1000th award means that they will be getting national recognition for their work."

A multi-themed community programme that will see people aged eight to eighty enjoying a whole feast of new activities right on their doorstep, People and their Parks receives over £138,000. This landmark project will host over 153 activities, including keep fit and healthy eating sessions, football, cricket and bowls. Residents can look forward to a wide range of arts and crafts sessions, not to mention family fun days where everyone can get involved. The scheme will also pay tribute to the rich history of Easington through a variety of exciting heritage events and celebrations such as Victorian days and 1940’s tea dances.

A new community awareness programme will give people a chance to have their say in local issues and improvements, through groups including Friends of the Park, and a Green Gym, offering plenty of hands on environmental and maintenance experience. The project will promote interaction throughout the wider community and encourage young people to steer away from anti-social behaviour and into positive activities in the park.

"The award from the Big Lottery Fund's Reaching Communities is going to breath new life into the fantastic parks and community spaces of Easington Colliery, said Partnership Project Manager Michael Fishwick. This money will allow Easington Colliery Regeneration Partnership with residents and local groups to deliver activities and events all year round.

“We want to bring people back into their parks as places to exercise, socialise and enjoy. This grant will allow us to do it. We're looking forward to delivering a full-time programme of activities over the next three years which will bring people together and create a stronger sense of community 'can-do' where everyone can be part of what makes this a great place to live. The Big Lottery Fund has given the Regeneration Partnership an award which is going to make a very big difference to Easington Colliery."

Also sharing in today’s success are Bristol based charity Young&Free with a £50,000 award to tackle social isolation and help young disabled people in Bristol make friends with their non-disabled peers. The project, formed by disabled young adults and their parents, provides a befriending service and encourages its members to get out and about, taking part in group activities like going to the cinema, bowling, music and visiting local attractions.

Pat Lapins, Chair of Young&Free, said: “The project is successfully providing a great variety of social opportunities for our members and the barriers of social exclusion are coming down. Volunteers from all walks of life and Bristol’s two universities buddy up with our members in a variety of social events from bowling to a shopping spree. The Big Lottery Fund grant will enable us to reach out and significantly expand this unique service.”

The Reaching Communities success story continues with projects such as, Haringey Shed, which, thanks to a £123,510 award made in 2007, has expanded an inclusion theatre project for children and young people to ensure that the theatre continues to be representative of the different ethnic groups in the borough.

Haringey Shed runs after school theatre clubs and 'Inclusive Theatre' projects where children from mainstream schools and special schools work together and learn about each other. This project is encouraging more children and young people from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds to get involved to further promote inclusion and tolerance.

Lucy has Downs Syndrome, but as her mother explains, ‘Haringey Shed has done a tremendous amount for Lucy’s self-confidence and social confidence. At Haringey Shed she is completely accepted and over time she has lost a lot of her self-consciousness and now she sees herself as a performer’.

Other awards made in this latest round include Blackheath Village’s Age Exchange, with £83,035 to expand the ‘Creative Ageing in London’ project, a programme of reminiscence and nostalgia events for elderly Londoners based in residential care. While North West, Fylde Coast Women's Aid - Independent Domestic Violence Advocacy (IDVA) project are awarded £416,221 for a project to provide vital support to women and children suffering domestic abuse in Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre.

Over in the West Midlands, Harvey Girls receives £263,286 to develop their support services for young mothers in the Burton-on-Trent and Uttoxeter areas, and Oblong Ltd receive £150,338 for ACT UP to provide new learning skills for people living in deprived areas of north Leeds.

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

• 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 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.