WIREDGOV

An innovative community project in New Addington that encourages local people to ‘bank’ and exchange time and skills has been awarded £133,412 in lottery good cause money to expand the scheme.

The funding comes from the BIG Lottery Fund’s Reaching Community programme, which supports projects that improve the lives of people across England.

The New Addington Time Bank is part of a worldwide phenomenon, with groups in countries from Japan to Spain, Brazil to Slovakia. The founding patron in the UK was the late Anita Roddick, who supported the idea that people could benefit from sharing what they know with others and receiving help in return.

The scheme encourages people to share their practical skills in areas such as DIY, gardening, cooking, childcare and computers. People deposit their time into a ‘bank’ and then withdraw time when they need help themselves – everyone’s time is valued equally.

The pilot scheme in New Addington has already experienced success, with 147 members exchanging 2058 hours between them so far. Members have also taken part in an accredited training course in food hygiene and a confidence-building workshop. The grant from BIG will help extend the programme and encourage even more participants to join in.

Alison Paule, spokesperson for the New Addington Time Bank, said: “We are amazed and excited to have been successful with our funding request to the Big Lottery Fund. This success will make an enormous difference to the future of the Time Bank.

“It will enable us to continue to work with residents of Fieldway and New Addington to build a stronger and safer local community. The funding means we can develop our project over the next three years to become even more inclusive – starting up a local ‘Youth Bank’ as well as co-producing projects with the local refugee communities.”

Debbie Pippard, Head of Region for London, said: “Reaching Communities supports projects around the country that help make a positive difference to people’s lives. This scheme in Croyden is a wonderful example of a project that helps people to make that difference by sharing their skills and experience with others – and gaining skills in return. BIG is delighted to be able to offer support to this project.”

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:
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• 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.