Support for Vulnerable Familes Across Wales

The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has recently announced that it will commit an extra £2 million in Lottery money over the next 12 months to support groups helping vulnerable families and children living in poverty in Wales.

BIG has earmarked an additional £2 million to enable organisations to expand their activities and give families living in poverty more help. It has been recently estimated that 96,000* Welsh children are living in severe poverty, a figure which has increased significantly as a result of the recession, and the Big Lottery Fund is asking for applications to ensure additional money is urgently made available where it is needed.

From today, organisations will be able to apply for grants of up to £50,000. The money will be awarded to organisations providing support for vulnerable families at risk of breakdown or to those supporting children living in poverty through initiatives such as food co-operatives, clothing recycling and nutrition and dietary advice. Groups that support young carers, victims of domestic violence, children affected by substance abuse and those young people with one or more parents in custody will also be eligible to apply.

Ceri Doyle, Director of Big Lottery Fund and Chair of the Wales Lottery Forum, said: “We have looked carefully at where this extra Lottery money can make a big difference to people’s lives and this is why we are focusing on helping vulnerable families and children living in poverty. We want groups that apply for this extra money to show us how the grant from the Big Lottery Fund will help revitalise their communities and improve access to vital support services now and in the future.

“We are asking for applications from organisations across Wales and we will work with them to get this money to where it is really needed - to improve the lives of vulnerable families and children in Wales.”

The new investment builds on the £2.5 million of new funding announced as part of BIG’s ‘recession package’ launched in August 2009, which has seen Lottery money channelled through support groups and services to people living in the most deprived communities in Wales.

Save the Family in Brymbo, Wrexham was awarded nearly £200,000 in 2009 by the Big Lottery Fund as part of the recession package, which has allowed them to help vulnerable people like Bryan McHugh to rebuild their lives.

Bryan McHugh approached Save the Family for help twelve months ago, following the death of his mother and loss of his house. Save The Family provides a lifeline for families who find themselves in a crisis situation. They aim to keep whole homeless families together to avoid children being placed into care and help them to rebuild their lives together. Through life skills training, families are given the chance to resettle in the community and ensure their children remain in school. Thanks to support from the Big Lottery Fund and other organisations, more than 4 in every 5 families seen by Save the Family are resettled successfully.

Bryan, along with his three children, aged 13, 10 and eight, and his wife, moved to Save the Family residential site in Wrexham last year. Bryan says: “Thanks to Save the Family, we have been able to completely turn our lives around. My kids are at school and doing really well and we’ve made loads of great friends. I am using my skills as a football coach to run the football team, I’ve completed a computing course and learnt new skills such as cookery, all of which has increased my confidence.”

“The support we receive from the staff at Save the Family is brilliant. I’ve been through some tough times over the past few years, and it’s been great to have someone there always happy to talk and offer advice and comfort. My family and I feel really confident and happy now, and we’re ready to move back into the community and re-start our lives.”

As the largest of four Lottery money distributors in Wales**, BIG is already giving away close to £1 million in grant funding each week to aid a wide range of projects across the education, charity and health sectors. BIG is also responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery with 28 pence from every pound spent on Lottery tickets going towards supporting good causes. This announcement will see BIG, which has funded over 22,000 projects to the tune of £600 million in Wales since it was set up in 2006, make a difference to vulnerable people’s lives and help build better communities. 

Further Information
To find out more about this new funding package or to see if your project has a chance of securing grant funding through BIG’s many other grant programmes, visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.

For further information, contact Catrin Millar or Lisa Hocken at Equinox PR on 02920 764 100 or email catrin@equinox-pr.co.uk