Published: 04 June 2007
Big Funding for English Communities
The latest round of funding from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme sees over £6.5 million being awarded to groups across England.
Within these grants are two England-wide projects serving very different sections of society. Unlock has been awarded funding to help prisoners prepare for life after release, while Thrive will help blind people to be green fingered in their gardens.
Prisoners will be helped to overcome exclusion and to rejoin the community after release, with a £347,225 grant awarded to Unlock – The National Association of Ex-Offenders, based in Snodland, Kent.
The three-year, England-wide, Unlocking Capability project is intended to raise financial awareness amongst prisoners by providing training and assistance in money management:
· Prisoners will be helped to open bank accounts, helping them to access employment and a host of services when they are released
· A database of companies offering non-discriminatory insurance products and mortgages to ex-offenders will also be developed and maintained
Julie Wright, Deputy Chief Executive, Unlock, said:
“Everyone these days needs to develop personal finance skills and use financial services – like bank accounts and insurance.
Most of us take these things for granted but people leaving prison tend to have limited or no skills and face financial exclusion by service providers, leading many straight back to crime.
Unlock will help prisoners across England learn how to manage their money, operate a bank account, plan ahead, avoid debt and even open a bank account before release so that when they rejoin society they are better prepared to ‘go straight’ and play a positive part in their communities.”
The second England-wide project to benefit will help blind and partially sighted people to continue to enjoy their gardens after sight loss:
· Reading-based, national charity Thrive (The Society for Horticultural Therapy) has been awarded £255,774 to run its National Blind Gardeners’ Club, which helps visually impaired people to continue gardening and reap the associated benefits it brings
· A quarterly gardening magazine will be produced in a variety of accessible formats along with an audio CD of information to inspire newly blind people to continue gardening
· Through a series of practical road shows and gardening weekends, the project will reach people across the country, helping to reduce isolation and raise levels of fitness, confidence and independence
Tim Spurgeon, Head of Services at Thrive, said:
“100 people a day are diagnosed with serious sight loss and many of these will give up gardening as a result.
We want to make sure that people get information early enough after diagnosis so that they can carry on gardening and use it not only to help cope with their loss of sight but also to improve their mental and physical health.
This grant allows Thrive to provide practical workshops, information and free advice to the visually impaired gardener.
It also means we can reach out to the rehabilitation officers and other relevant health professionals and promote gardening as well as developing our collaborative work with the RNIB and other local blind associations.”
Sanjay Dighe, Big Lottery Fund Chair of England Committee, said:
“These awards are a perfect illustration of the diversity of the projects we are funding through Reaching Communities.
The programme has been making awards for a year now and has already handed out almost £111 million, helping organisations across England to improve our communities and reach out to some of the most vulnerable groups.”
UK-wide, the Big Lottery Fund aims to distribute through its new programmes and allocations funding worth over £2.6bn between now and April 2009.
Further information:
Big Lottery Fund
Unlock
Thrive
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