WIREDGOV

An England-wide scheme delivering wheelchair skills training to children and young people with disabilities is one of dozens of initiatives today taking a share of £11.8 million in lottery good cause funding from the Big Lottery Fund.

Excursions for visually impaired people and support for foster families are also among the 40 projects receiving funding today from BIG’S Reaching Communities programme.

The multi-million pound roll-out to voluntary and community organisations will help their work with some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded people across England.

Sanjay Dighe, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund’s England Committee, said: “We are delighted to see over £11.8 million going to support the people who most need it, including three fantastic England-wide schemes which will enable people with disabilities to try new things and reach their potential, and support foster carers to do an extremely important job to the best of their ability.”

Whizz-Kidz (The Movement for Non-Mobile Children) are getting things moving to expand their project delivering specialist wheelchair skills training to children and young people. BIG’s grant of £496,783 will fund schemes throughout England, consisting of five individual sessions for everyone involved using a combination of games, sports and group activities. Topics will include spacial awareness, accuracy when turning, route planning and road safety. The aim is to enable young wheelchair users to become more independent and have fun with their peers.

Wheelchair Skills Training Manager Ruth Giller said: “A vital part of providing disabled young people with wheelchairs is making sure they know how to use them to have fun and to be safe. This grant will give 1800 disabled children and young people the opportunity to attend a local wheelchair skills training scheme and gain the skills and confidence they need to get the maximum benefit from their wheelchair.“

She added: “With expert support from the Whizz-Kidz network of trainers, most of whom are wheelchair-users, disabled young people will have the opportunity to boost their confidence around mobility through a series of games, exercises and activities.

“Following training, disabled children can often do simple everyday tasks for the first time – such as crossing the road, visiting the shops, posting a letter, or simply joining in with family and friends. This has a dramatic and positive impact on disabled children’s lives and on their families’ lives too.”

Also aiming to break down barriers for disabled people is Action for Blind People, with a grant of £176,607 to expand their service providing activities and excursions for visually impaired people together with their carers and families, through four specially adapted hotels in the Lake District, Somerset, Devon and West Sussex. Physical, social and cultural activities aimed at improving well-being will include walking, canoeing, sailing and fishing with an audio description by the excursion leader.

General Manager Chris Lawrence said: “We are very excited about this grant by the Big Lottery Fund. The much-needed money will allow us to provide a range of outdoor excursions and activities for blind and partially-sighted people, who can so often feel isolated and excluded.

“The activities will be offered from Action for Blind People’s four hotels in the Vision Hotel Group, all of which go well beyond the label of a mere ‘hotel’, but rather provide opportunities forblind and partially sighted people to gain or regain confidence and meet people in similar circumstances.”

Meanwhile, the Fostering Network is celebrating a grant of £447,631 to provide local foster care associations in 15 areas of England that are not currently served. These centres provide a meeting place for foster carers to share problems, ideas and solutions and access peer support. The project will encourage foster carers to set up and run associations, ensuring they have the maximum benefit to their community.

Deputy Chief Executive Raina Sheridan said: “This is fantastic news for the Fostering Network, for foster carers and the children they care for throughout England. Foster carers look after children day in day out: listening to them, valuing them and caring for them. But, too often, they don’t receive the recognition and support they need to do their job effectively.

“This project will ensure they can work together to tackle their problems and provide mutual support through local foster care associations. It will offer an outreach service, training and development opportunities to help establish 15 new foster care associations. The end result will be better supported and valued foster carers, with the support to do their jobs – looking after tens of thousands of fostered children across England – more effectively."

Download the full list of projects receiving Reaching Communities grants today 
- 32KB

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.