Big Lottery Fund

£10 million to kick start sustainable communities living across England

Could you help us learn how communities in England can live in a more sustainable way?

If the answer is yes, your community could be one of ten to receive up to £1million to work across the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to build a sustainable and resilient community that can develop inspirational ideas and share their learning with other communities across England.

We are particularly keen to see vulnerable people benefitting by making greener choices that will help them reduce their costs and improve their quality of life.

Our offer

We will invest in up to ten communities by providing:

• Access to expert support and advice to help each community develop their skills, knowledge and abilities and build on best practice within and between communities
• Up to £10,000 to develop a project delivery plan that details the environmental, economic and social challenges affecting the community and how they can be addressed
• Grants of between £500,000 and £1 million for up to five years. This funding will provide an opportunity for communities to work together to access further resources and support so that their communities are sustainable and resilient long after our funding ends.

Want to know more . . .

Please visit our website or contact the Big Advice Line on 0845 4 10 20 30. Please note the closing date for the expression of interest stage is Tuesday 31 January 2012.

Big Fund announces support for free advice services

The Government has made up to £16.8 million available for a programme called the Advice Services Fund. The fund is being administered by Big Fund, the non-lottery division of Big Lottery Fund.

Not for profit organisations working within the free advice sector can apply for between £40,000 - £70,000. To ensure that this funding has the biggest impact, priority will be given to organisations that have experienced high levels of cuts and those that haven’t received funding through the Transition Fund.

The Government has identified four categories of advice that the programme will support:

• Advice on debt
• Advice on welfare benefits
• Advice on housing
• Advice on employment.

Organisations that do not currently provide advice in at least one of the categories are not eligible to apply to this programme.

For more information and how to apply, please visit our website

The online application must be completed by no later than noon on Thursday 22 December 2011.

Immediate changes to Reaching Communities Buildings

We have reviewed the buildings strand of our Reaching Communities programme and have made some small immediate changes to the eligibility criteria.

With immediate effect we have:

1. Introduced IMD 2010 data on top of IMD 2007 data

2. Increased the urban percentage from 15 per cent to 20 per cent

The eligibility checker has been updated to incorporate IMD 2010 data and now includes the following eligible areas:

• The most deprived 20 per cent of LSOAs categorised as urban
• The most deprived 20 per cent of LSOAs categorised as rural (town and fringe)
• The most deprived 50 per cent of LSOAs categorised as rural (villages/hamlets/isolated dwellings)

We have also introduced a process which offers some more flexibility around the eligibility criteria. This means we may now make an exception for projects that are based near an eligible area and which primarily serve beneficiaries in that area.

More information and FAQs about these changes and how you can get involved in a future more detailed review of the Reaching Communities buildings strand can be found on our website. Maps of eligible areas will be added shortly.

National Lottery Award winners 2011

As the sound of bangers banging, rockets whizzing and fireworks crackling filled the autumn sky on the 5th November this year, 22 fabulous Lottery funded projects gathered in London to find out whether they would be a recipient of a National Lottery Award.

We can confirm that the seven winning projects were:

• Best Arts Project: Northern Ballet and Phoenix Dance Theatre, Leeds
• Best Education Project (in association with Best magazine): Include Duchenne, UK-wide
• Best Environment Project: The Green Valley Centre, Bryncynon
• Best Health Project (in association with iVillage.co.uk): Sense Scotland, Scotland-wide
• Best Heritage Project: We Were Brothers: WW1 A Shared Heritage, Derry
• Best Sport Project: The Bluebird Care Hampshire Disability Cricket Programme
• Best Voluntary/Charity Project: Hands That Talk, Derry

To read more about these awards visit the National Lottery Good Causes website

Latest regional awards

Reaching Communities

Since August, 23 projects have been able to offer extensive support to the communities in which they work thanks to grants totalling over £5 million in the region. The projects include:

Craven based Pioneer Projects (Celebratory Arts) Ltd who have received £135,985 to support people with dementia and their carers. Beneficiaries of the project will have access to regular art workshops to develop skills to help stimulate their minds and draw out memories from their experience.

Bradford City FC Community Foundation, who received £53,318 for its ‘Second Half’ project. The project will work with marginalised communities to engage them using football to help them to improve their health, develop new skills and to become actively involved to make better informed decisions that affect their lifestyle.

Over the other side of the region in Hull, Child Dynamix have received £332,172 to create community play projects in the Park area of Hull. The project will increase community cohesion as volunteers work together through the volunteer development framework to develop and manage activities.

Families affected by autism or Down’s Syndrome will be brought together through music, art, drama and multi-sensory techniques. Slaithwaite based Shabang Inclusive Learning received £497,999 to deliver its ‘Bridge Builders’ project across West Yorkshire.

Awards for All

Just over £1.4 million has been awarded to 174 groups through our small grants programme Awards for All since September.  As usual the range of projects are as diverse as the communities and areas that can access this programme. The projects include:

Asian Women's Advice and Support in Halifax who received £8,400 to deliver its well-being project. Asian women will have access to ESOL classes, business planning and day trips.

Hambleton based Bagby and Balk Village Society can now pay for improvements to Oak Tree Park thanks to a Lottery grant £7,039. Children in the area will be able to swing from the monkey bars and ride along the new cycle path.

Also in North Yorkshire, Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale Mind will develop a new advanced volunteer training program with funding of £8,747 to provide further support to people with mental health problems.

Funding in Action - Gleadless Valley Community Forum

The community in Gleadless Valley, Sheffield have access to an extensive adult learning programme thanks to a Reaching Communities grant of £372,893.

The Gleadless Valley Community Forum Education and Skills project offers a range of courses, ranging from softer introductory courses such as crafting and other creative skills, which work well to introduce community members to the centre and increase confidence, who will then move on to courses that improve skills and employability opportunities, such as IT, interview skills, CV writing courses to name a few.

The forum recently celebrated a move to their new online centre and the community came out in force to help them celebrate. We went along to help them celebrate and talk about how the project is working within the Gleadless Valley community.

Don't forget to watch out for....

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. 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.