Big Lottery Fund

£35 million Forces in Mind Trust for veterans launches

With 20,000 people leaving the armed forces each year it is essential that they have the best opportunity for a successful return to civilian life so that they can fully participate in society. Thanks to a grant of £35 million, the creation of a Forces in Mind Trust (FIMT) means that ex-service people will have the support that they need.

The FIMT is a partnership of UK forces charities and mental health organisation, led by the Confederation of Service Charities (COBSEO) and has been given partnership support from The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry which will back the trust with its own grants over a three-year programme as well as helping to raise awareness of the issues facing veterans.

Over the next 20 years, the Forces in Mind Trust will provide UK-wide long term support for Service personnel and Veterans to make a successful transition to civilian life.  The focus will be on addressing a range of problems that some exservice personnel and their families can experience back in civilian life, such as poor mental health, family breakdown and alcohol-related problems.

A pilot project at Catterick in Yorkshire will provide 12 months of enhanced support and guidance on employment, accommodation, educational needs, and mental health issues for approximately 1000 early service leavers from across the UK.

The Trust’s work will also include commissioning research to improve knowledge of the issues affecting veterans and their families, which will help shape new services and inform national policy. The Trust will also undertake awareness raising campaigns, and provide peer advice and support, particularly to those veterans who are most vulnerable.

The Trust continues BIG’s long-standing legacy of support for veterans across the UK. Since 2004, the Fund has given more than £88 million to programmes supporting veterans. The Fund’s Heroes Return initiative has enabled over 51 000 Second World War veterans, widows, spouses and carers to journey back to the places where they served and fought or where their loved ones died.

Read the full press release and details of organisations involved

Reduce your carbon footprint as BRE announce another round of funding

Community Sustainable Energy Programme(CSEP) is an open grants programme run by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) as an award partner of the Big Lottery Fund.  BRE carries out research, consultancy, training and testing to help create better buildings and communities.

Applications will be accepted for heat generating technologies and energy efficiency measures only.

CSEP has to date awarded £8.5 million to community-based organisations for the installation of microgeneration technologies, such as solar panels or biomass boilers and energy efficiency measures including loft and cavity wall insulation. Ithas provided £1 million for project development grants thathas helped community organisations decide if they could benefit from amicrogeneration and energy efficiency installation.

Visit the BRE website for a full list of their outcomes.

Deadline for the receipt of completed applications is 5pm Friday 29 February 2012

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Capital grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. Details of all aspects of the grant application process, installers and technologies are available on the BRE website.

Great news for WW2 Vets - Heroes Return extended

The Big Lottery Fund has extended its Heroes Return 2 programme. The programme has no fixed deadline for applications at this time.

This extension is for those veterans who have so far been unable to undertake a commemorative visit. So that as many veterans as possible get this opportunity, we can only fund one visit for each veteran, widow or widower. This means that if a veteran has already received funding for a commemorative visit since April 2009, we would not be able to fund a second visit.

Since 2001, over 50,000 people have made commemorative trips with funding from BIG's Heroes Return schemes with grants totalling over £24 million.

You are eligible if you are a veterans who fought with or alongside British forces in World War 2 and are  resident in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. War widows and widowers of veterans are also eligible for funding, and carers and spouses can receive funding to travel with veterans.

You can apply for between £150 - £5,500

Visit our website for more information about our Heroes Return programme.

Read first hand how the Heroes Return programme has helped Second World War Veterans travel all around the world visiting places where they once fought for their countries freedom.

Review of 2011

What a busy 12 months, we have had.  In 2011, Big Lottery Fund (BIG) awarded £24 million in Yorkshire and the Humber, benefitting over 850 projects and communities across the region. This includes 718 small grants through our Awards for All programme. Funding ranged from £300 to add secure fencing to an allotment in Leeds to £996,000 to support young carers in York and North Yorkshire.

We also took six MPs to visit 11 Big Lottery funded projects in the region, providing them with the opportunity to meet the people who benefit from the projects that we fund. Cleethorpes MP, Martin Vickers visited the Friendship at Home Scheme. The project works to reduce isolation for older people. The MP spoke to people who benefit from the social activities, which include coffee mornings, tai chi, curling, personal shopping and beauty sessions.

BIG welcomed Peter Ainsworth as the UK Chair and Nat Sloane as the England Committee Chair and the regional team recently had the pleasure of meeting Nat. After meeting the regional Big Lottery team, Nat went to visit a couple of BIG funded projects, including Garforth Library and The Archway Project in Leeds. He was really impressed by the work these projects are doing in the community.

2011 saw the launch of many funding programmes including Reaching Communities building strand, the Silver Dreams Fund, Improving Financial Confidence, Jubilee People’s Millions, Big Local, Village SOS competition, Communities Living Sustainably and non-lottery initiatives such as the Transition Fund, Transforming local Infrastructure, Advice Services Fund and The Big Society Investment Fund.

We also visited lots of BIG funded projects and found out how they are making a difference to people’s lives in their communities. If you haven’t seen them already make sure you watch and listen to our latest regional 'productions'!

Oh and we gained 700 followers on Twitter – make sure you are following us too @BIGYH

Latest regional awards

Reaching Communities

We have awarded 12 more grants in the region under our Reaching Communities programme. The projects will share £3.2 million between them. Two of the projects have received grants to develop their buildings applications.

Organisations benefitting from the latest awards are:

Gipton Together in Leeds will use its £295,111 for its youth activities. Young people, aged between 6 and 16, will have access to arts and sports activities and will have the opportunity to enter competitions and achieve rewards in their chosen activities such as belts in Karate and dancing medals. The project will work to raise the aspirations of its users whilst developing and increasing their self-esteem.

York based Our Celebration has received £244,328 to provide a befriending service to improve the well-being of individuals with mental health difficulties. The individual will receive support from a ‘befriender’ who will provide them with support, companionship and informal advice to lead to increased confidence in dealing with every-day and sudden situations by themselves.

Awards for All

Communities all across the region are set to benefit thanks to the latest grants announced in our small grants programme, Awards for All. 71 more projects will receive Big Lottery Fund grants totaling £606,709.

The latest awards include:

Carlton Education and Enterprise Limited who received £10,000 for its ‘Pop Star Parties’ project in North Lincolnshire. Parents will learn project management, managing money and customer care skills to develop a business arranging Children’s Pop Star Parties offering adults employment and training opportunities.

Harrogate based AMP Awards C.I.C. They will use its award of £9,981 to run a music competition involving young people in its development and delivery. Participants will experience working with local businesses and enterprises relevant to the music industry to gain skills and qualifications.

Doncaster Book Awards will be running a wide range of ‘Olympic’ themed literacy activities, workshops and events after receiving £9,975 for its The Community Readers Project. Reading events will take place in sports stadiums and authors of sport-related literature will be engaging with young people to improve reading and literacy.

Read our latest press release.

Supporting Change and Impact

Over 90 Voluntary and Community Sector projects will be able to better plan for their future in the uncertain economic environment after receiving Big Lottery Fund grants.

93 grants of up to £10,000 have been awarded to existing BIG projects across in England. The projects, all of whom are in their last 18 months of funding, will use their awards to review the way they work and to explore ways of becoming more sustainable.

Projects in this region include Parson Cross Learning Zone, Sheffield and Bootham Stray Allotment Association, York.

BIG Learns from young people

Since 2004, Big Lottery Fund has invested over £211 million into projects that actively involve young people in planning and delivering youth services. Focussing on projects funded under our Young people’s Fund programme, BIG has published seven good practice guides for organisations working with young people.

The seven new downloadable good practice guides are:

• Encouraging Active Citizenship – supporting young people to make a positive contribution and engage with their community
• Actively involving young people – approaches to active involvement that have worked well for BIG funded projects
• Reducing anti-social behaviour and working with young people who have offended or are at risk of offending – examples of tackling ASB to minimise the risk of young people continuing with offending behaviour
• Improving behaviour in schools – how youth projects have the potential to positively influence the behaviour of young people who are at risk of disengagement or exclusion
• Reducing cases of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) – key learning from youth projects that have helped keep young people actively engaged with education and identifying the triggers and early warning signs of disengagement
• Working with young carers – lessons from organisations working with this hidden group of young people
• Working with care leavers – practical examples of ways to engage care leavers within youth projects and helping to address issues such as instability faced by individuals

The good practice guides and Young People’s Fund evaluation reports are downloadable from our website.

Dates for your diary

Village SOS (Monday 27 February 2012)

This FREE landmark conference at Burlington Hotel in Birmingham includes a fantastic line up of rural and community enterprise experts. The event will feature the best examples of rural community enterprises across the UK including those featured in the Village SOS television series. Book your place now

The Big Lunch

Get together on 3rd June 2012 for a one day get together for neighbours – a great excuse to get to know the people in your community. You can register for a 2012 Big Lunch pack at www.thebiglunch.com

Jubilee People’s Millions

As we celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee in June 2012, we will be finding out how our Jubilee Millions projects are getting on and how they will be commemorating the Queen’s 60th year on the throne.

Adult Learners Week (12-18 May 2012)

Adult Learners’ Week is the UK’s largest annual festival of learning; inspiring thousands of people each year to discover how learning can change their lives. Let us know if you are doing any activities this week and we may come along and learn a few things ourselves!

Volunteers Week (1-7 June 2012)

Volunteers’ Week is an annual event which celebrates the fantastic contribution that millions of volunteers make across the UK. The Week plays a huge part in raising the profile of the millions of volunteers who regularly contribute to society, while inspiring others to get involved too.