East Midlands region update

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March 2010

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East Midlands introduction

Welcome to our monthly regional update from the Big Lottery Fund, East Midlands. Thanks for taking the time to find out what we’re up to.

We are constantly looking at new ways of keeping in touch with stakeholders in the East Midlands region, this e-bulletin being one method, but we now are also using Facebook and Twitter as alternative methods. BIG also wants to know what you think of us and there is an excellent opportunity on 16 March to ask questions to the Big Lottery Fund chair using a live web chat.

The popular Peoples Millions programme is now open again for 2010 and I urge as many organisations as possible from the East Midlands to apply. You could then be featured on local ITV evening news for your chance to win a £50,000 grant for your group.

Congratulations again to all the groups that have been funded this month through Reaching Communities and Awards for All. Following our Big Thinking consultation last year, both of these programmes will be changing to make them even better.

I do hope that you find this monthly update informative and useful. We would welcome any feedback about other things that you would like to read about, by emailing us at enquiries.em@biglotteryfund.org.uk

Mick McGrath

Head of Region, East Midlands

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The People's Millions 2010 - now open!

The People's Millions - the popular partnership between the Big Lottery Fund and ITV - is now open for applications for 2010.

This year organisations will be able to apply for grants of up to £50,000. Application formsare now available from www.peoplesmillions.org.uk and the deadline for submitting them is 12 noon Friday 14 May 2009.

Shortlisted projects will be showcased on local ITV evening news later this year where they will have to convince the public why they need the cash. It will then be up to the public to vote for groups to win the funding.

We believe that involving the public in assisting decision-making can help make better National Lottery awards. Our experience to date is this programme has helped raise awareness of the benefits of Lottery funding and indeed raise the profile of community projects. Over the last five years 388 projects have been funded through the programme, sharing in a total of £21.4 million.

Village SOS shortlist announced

Congratulations to five villages in the East Midlands who are a step closer to finding out if they will secure up to £400,000 of Lottery money to set up a new community enterprise and have their journey documented for a major prime time BBC series.


Tideswell in the Peak District, Harby in Leicestershire, Newstead near Kirkby in Ashfield, Belchford near Grimsby and Caistor in Market Rasen, have now been paired up with a Village Champion – an experienced professional who, over the next few months, will help them to develop their initial business ideas into viable plans. The six best projects across the country will then be awarded up to £400,000 from the Big Lottery Fund in May and their respective Village Champions will move into the villages for a year to help get the businesses of the ground.

For more information visitt the Village SOS programme page.

Current programmes

Reaching Communities

Three grants totalling more than £700,000 have been awarded to three East Midlands groups this month through the Reaching Communities programme.

Fairplay a charity that works with young children and young people with disabilities and additional needs in North Derbyshire received £337,261 for their Youth Space project, which will increase opportunities for disabled young people in Chesterfield and Bolsover by hosting weekly youth clubs. Assistant Manager, Sue Green said:

“This funding will enable us to run weekly youth clubs, holiday activity days, monthly Saturday clubs and youth forum for young people aged 12-25 with disabilities in the area”

Northampton Door to Door service received an award of £93,346 to increase accessible transport for vulnerable groups in the area. This will provide a mini bus for those unable to use conventional transport due to disabilities or mobility issues.

The British Red Cross Society received £273,023 to provide assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in crisis in the Leicestershire area, helping them to access health, social, educational and legal services and support networks. The aim is to help people who often suffer poverty and health issues to settle into their new communities, live more independently and feel less isolated.

Making Reaching Communities even better

During our Big Thinking consultation last year many of you said that it was better to give early decisions on applications. Well we have taken your comments on board and from spring 2010 we will be launching the following improvements to our flagship Reaching Communities programme:

  • Firstly, applicants seeking smaller sums of money will enjoy a simpler application and assessment process.
  • Secondly, an improved decision making process will ensure that all applicants will learn at an early stage whether their project is in with a chance of receiving funding. For those invited to the second stage, the likelihood of success will be much higher, making work on completing a full application more worthwhile.

Also in the pipeline for later in the year is a third element, a dedicated capital stream offering funding within the familiar Reaching Communities application process to respond to the high, unmet demand for funding for community buildings.

We will be investing at least £100 million a year across England in the Reaching Communities programme for each of the next five years.

Get more information about the Reaching Communities programme

Awards for All

A total of 57 groups across the East Midlands benefitted from Awards for All in the latest round of awards.

Among those celebrating is Community Soccerstars UK who will be putting their grant of £7,465 into a project to bring together disadvantaged Derby families with small children to play football, developing their interaction, communication and teamwork skills.

Chair of the project Pat Lyons said:

“We are delighted to have been awarded this grant from the Big Lottery Fund. The grant will be spent on training qualified coaches, equipment, venues, certificates and t-shirts for all the children taking part”

Another group with something to smile about is Age Concern Regional Support Services (East Midlands), who will put their £9,900 grant to good use by exploring how comedy can improve well-being. The Funny Old World project will consist of a series of comedy shows aimed at older people, particularly those from black and ethnic minority communities.

Glassopdale furniture project received £8,000 to provide ‘starter packs’ of furniture for people setting up their first homes, including women who have experienced domestic violence and families living on financial support.

Did you know Awards for All is even easier to apply to?

After looking at the programme and how people are applying, we’ve made a few changes.

Firstly we have “tweaked” the application form and the guidance notes to make them clearer.

Secondly, we have introduced a new guide to help groups during the application process. The guide explains what we need from groups that have been offered a conditional grant, and should prove useful for deciding whether to apply to Awards for All in the first place.

And the third change is the relaxation of the requirements for a referee; the application form will no longer ask for referee details to be included. We haven’t removed the requirement all together though; we may ask some groups once we have looked at their application, but it will make applying to Awards for All quicker and easier in the first instance.

For more information call 0845 4 10 20 30 or go to the Awards for All website.

Olympic update from Kelly Hart, Regional Policy and Partnerships Manager

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge sports fan. So I jumped at the chance to be BIG’s regional lead for the Olympics in the East Midlands. I personally was really excited and proud that we won the bid for London 2012 and since then have been amazed at how much work and detail is required to stage the games. This was reiterated to me when I attended the first Torch Relay meeting in Loughborough on 5 February.


The planning team played us some films and spoke about their plans for the torch relay route through Britain. Did you know that 8,000 people will be torchbearers, the relays will take two years to plan and everything will be timed right down to the last minute?  The ceremonies team aims to ensure that everyone in the UK will be within one hour’s travelling time from the route, so that everyone has the chance to catch a glimpse of the flame.

Anyone can nominate themselves to be a torchbearer and each person will carry the flame for approx 300 metres. The only condition is that each person has to have a story to tell – not necessarily sports related. Each day of the relay will be broken up with breaks held at community venues such as schools, community centres or village halls. The focus is going to be on the diverse range of communities, youth and environmental sustainability.

I left the meeting feeling really inspired and excited by the Games – I think there are excellent opportunities for the BIG regional teams to get involved in the planning. I am sure there will be announcements in the future stating how we can all get involved to celebrate and make this a great occasion for everyone.

Join our BIG chat with Sir Clive Booth

On 16 March from 1pm to 3pm, the chair of the Big Lottery Fund, Sir Clive Booth, will be taking part in a live web chat and you can join in!

Do you have a burning question you would like to ask? Well between now and 16 March you can send us questions for Sir Clive to answer online.

If you want to make your voice heard, you can:

It is a year since our BIG thinking consultation, which helped us set out our strategic framework for developing new funding programmes. BIG chat is part of the continuing discussion we are having with individuals and communities that will inform the work of Big Lottery Fund.

East Midlands office

Thanks for taking the time to read this months bulletin. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions about anything in this update please email us at enquiries.em@biglotteryfund.org.uk or call us on 0115 8722950.