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An award-winning community garden is among 33 projects sharing in over £260,000 of National Lottey good causes cash yesterday. The money comes from the Big Lottery Fund’s popular small grants scheme, Awards for All (see list of grants for projects in your area 
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Awards for All offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 to social and environmental projects that will benefit local communities and make a difference to the lives of those most in need. Voluntary and community groups, schools, health organisations and parish and town councils can all apply.

The award-winning Golden Gardens in Goldington, Bedford, will use their grant of £2,330 to improve their site by installing seating, shelter, plants and planters.

The gardens were orignally established after scooping £80,000 in the Big Lottery Fund’s People’s Millions competition in 2007 to convert two unused and vandalised garage sites into community gardens.

Since then, the gardens have won a variety of awards, including last week winning the Times & Citizen Best Community Gardens award for two years running.

Sylvia Peacock, Vice Chair Golden Gardens, said: “We have two gardens, one is the nursery garden and the other one is mainly for sitting and relaxing in. What we want to do now is to turn the second garden in to a working garden so that it will become just as popular as the nursery one. It really appeals to a lot of people like families and young people.

“We’re really thrilled to receive this grant and would advise other community groups looking for funding to look at Awards for All.”

Meanwhile, Headway Hertfordshire receives £9,940 to deliver weekly sessions in two locations in the county, which will cover exercise, healthy eating, counselling and relaxation techniques specifially designed for people with acquired brain injuries who cannot access mainstream provision.

In Cambridge, Stars Children’s Bereavement Support Services will use £8,150 to expand their service to include specialist bereavement counselling for disabled children and children with special educational needs.

Charitable organisation, The Art Ministry in Chelmsford is also sharing in today’s grants, getting £950 to hold an arts and crafts exhibition which will showcase the work of people with mental and physical disabilites and people with learning difficulties.

While £3,895 goes to Tenwin Memorial Hall in Hertfordshire to establish a community cinema so they can run film events and cultural and social activities.

Students at Tennyson Road Primary School in Luton will soon be able to play in a secret garden thanks to £10,000. The garden will have dedicated wildlife, quiet and growing areas for the benefit of the community.

And Hatfield Road Day Care Group in St. Albans receives £960 to run chair based exercise sessions for physical disabled residents who use their day centre, whereas Bungay Cherry Tree Angling Club in Suffolk receives £2,923 to install overflow drainage and improved paths at their angling site.

Sara Betsworth, Big Lottery Fund’s Head of the East of England region, said: “We are really keen to hear from community groups in the East of England region who might need a small grant for their community project. Awards for All funds a wide range of activities and groups may not realise just how short and straightforward the application process is.”

See the full list list of today’s awards 
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Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888

Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf

Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund

Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of 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 BIG has awarded over £4.4bn.
• 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 £28 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.