Rye’s Little Gate Farm receives £35,000 National Lottery funding to support young adults with learning disabilities through COVID-19

An East Sussex charity based in Rye that supports young adults with learning disabilities and autism into paid employment has received a £35,000 National Lottery boost to support its vital work during the COVID-19 crisis.

Little Gate Farm - set in 46 acres of pasture and ancient woodland in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - provides opportunities for 80 people with learning disabilities and people with Autism to take part in paid supported employment placements in the local area. It also offers skills training in several roles on the farm itself, so people can learn new skills and grow in confidence and independence.

However, with COVID-19 restrictions still impacting Little Gate Farm’s ability to meet people face-to-face, the charity has had to adapt to be more digitally focused, using its National Lottery funding for online activities to ensure it can still reach out, support and reassure the young adults, along with their families and carers, who rely on its service.

Young people with learning disabilities have been hard-hit by COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown restrictions. Little Gate Farm has reported an increase in people struggling with a sudden and dramatic change in routine and heightened feelings of isolation, loneliness and anxiety.

With support from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, Little Gate Farm is running digital workshops on a range of topics, including cooking and nutrition, self-care and hygiene, finances, mindfulness and wellbeing and technology advice. The charity is also sending out activity packs, as well as creating Facebook videos to share farm activities, and cooking, woodland and horticulture workshops via Zoom and video. Daily phone calls to offer advice and support during these difficult times are also being made by the dedicated staff.

For its most vulnerable young people with Autism, Little Gate Farm will also use the National Lottery funding to purchase licenses for the Autism app, Brain in Hand, which helps people with making decisions, managing anxiety, and dealing with unexpected situations via their phone or tablet. The funding will also be used to provide some families with laptops and tablets so they can remain connected with the charity and continue to access support and guidance throughout the pandemic.

Mary Soul, Head of Fundraising at Little Gate Farm, said: “The Funding that we have received from The National Community Lottery Fund during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a lifeline for Little Gate Farm and our beneficiaries with learning disabilities and Autism. It has meant that we have been able to stay connected with our young people, who have found themselves in a very strange world without their usual routines and support systems.

“The fund has enabled us to invest in technology that will help to prevent our young people from becoming isolated, and help them manage their routines, and anxiety. We are so very grateful to National Lottery players for helping us to stay connected, and to carry on making a difference during COVID-19.”

Little Gate Farm is one of ten community projects in East Sussex that has received a share of almost £115,000 National Lottery funding since the beginning of June. Other projects in the county to receive funding include Emmaus in Brighton & Hove, which received over £8,000 to provide hot meals for people who have experienced homelessness and are living in assisted accommodation. Wyntercon, an award-winning arts and educational charity based in Eastbourne, also received over £7,000 to provide arts and educational workshops to people from underprivileged backgrounds, combined with the distribution of resource packs containing the materials required for the sessions.

Helen Bushell, Head of Funding for the South of England at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The National Lottery is playing a critical role in supporting people, projects and communities during these challenging times. Groups such as Little Gate Farm are making an amazing contribution to the community-level response. We’re incredibly grateful for their dedication and the hard work of thousands of projects across the UK – we’re humbled by their efforts and delighted that our funding is able to help.”

East Sussex isn’t alone in receiving National Lottery funding – the South East as a whole was awarded over £2million since the beginning of June, which is being distributed across 68 community projects and organisations. Over £21 million of National Lottery funding awarded to more than 750 projects in England since the beginning of June.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. Last year we awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, and supported over 14,000 projects to turn their great ideas into reality and make a difference in their communities.

Across all of the National Lottery distributors, £600 million has been made available to support communities throughout the UK during the coronavirus outbreak. Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for the UK’s good causes, and £41 billion has been distributed to 565,000 good causes across the UK since 1994.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk