Over £4.5m National Lottery funding boost for Northern Ireland groups

Young people, families from black and minority ethnic communities and people with a learning disability or living with dementia are among those who will be benefiting from National Lottery funding. A total of 17 groups that are making a real difference to families and communities across Northern Ireland, have been awarded £4,826,828 through grants from The National Lottery Community Fund.

One of the groups celebrating today is On Street Youth in Derry/Londonderry, which has received £500,000 over three years to provide support and leadership opportunities to young people. The project is helping them to explore issues that affect them, build community awareness and support them to play an active role in the community. They will also develop an accredited street based work training programme. The young people involved will also organise two community events each year.

Tommy McCallion, manager of On Street Youth said:“We are absolutely delighted to be receiving this support from The National Lottery Community Fund. For over 20 years our organisation has been on the forefront of championing and supporting young people and their right to play a full and leading role in this community. And it is no coincidence that National Lottery funding has been with us almost every step of the way.

“On Street Community Youth means so much to many. It is the reassurance to the local community that whether we are on street engaging or we are providing group work, we are there to challenge stereotypes that young people are not capable of shaping a community and that they have nothing positive to offer.

“Whatever is going on we know that our role is to support young people and to build relationships with them through our various activities, which can be on a one-one mentoring basis, small group work or simply being a listening ear on street.

“All our activities are a great way of empowering them to realise their own potential and going forward with our new LINKS project we will be able to continue these services and importantly add even more services that will make sure we empower and encourage their development in becoming independent and resilient. Without the support of the National Lottery and crucially those in our community who actually play the National Lottery this would not be possible and for that we are thankful.”

Other groups that have received funding include Arts Ekta to create opportunities for black and minority ethnic communities across Northern Ireland to feel part of their local community, the Special Educational Needs Advice Centre for helping parents access support at school, the YMCA’s Greenhill campus in Newcastle to provide an accessible water facility, and Friends of Sydenham Court Association to improve the health and wellbeing of people with dementia. A full list of grants awarded can be downloaded below.

Kate Beggs, The National Lottery Community Fund Northern Ireland Director said: “I am delighted to announce these grants today. It’s great to see National Lottery money being used by people who are taking the lead in developing great ideas to help their communities thrive.

“This year we are celebrating the 25th birthday of the National Lottery and the £40 billion raised for good causes across the UK since 1994, with 565,000 grants awarded to individual projects. I want to say thank you to all the National Lottery players who have helped make this possible.”

If you would like to apply for National Lottery Funding, application forms and guidance notes are available to download at www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk. For more details call us on 028 9055 1455, or email us at enquiries.ni@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.