Village SOS

What's it all about?

The National Lottery Community Fund supported rural communities across the UK through a £1.4 million investment delivered by ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) and partners. Projects, potential projects and organisations that provided a service to their local rural community with a population of fewer than 10,000 were eligible to apply.

Village SOS was launched by The National Lottery Community Fund in 2009 to seize the challenges and opportunities faced by people living in rural communities. It saw more than 160 innovative village projects come to fruition, from community shops to a community forest company. The National Lottery Community Fund kept the spirit of this success alive with an additional two-year Village SOS campaign, with ACRE and its network of 38 rural community councils leading on activity in England; in Wales it was WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action) in Scotland Rocket Science, Senscot and Forth Sector; and in Northern Ireland the Rural Community Network. The aim of Village SOS was to keep communities alive and thriving by helping them to become more enterprising with the support of people who have already done it themselves.

For more information please visit: www.villagesos.org.uk