£40k Lottery boost for community initiatives

The money is part of an Awards for All programme roll out of £635,016 to 78 groups across Northern Ireland.

Bushside LOL 923 has been granted £2,798 to refurbish its Orange hall in a rural area near Ballymoney so more people can use it.

Funding of £3,200 will enable Fibromyalgia Awareness NI, which offers support to sufferers of Fibromyalgia and ME in the Limavady area, to provide a range of activities and events in the group’s drop-in centre and produce promotional materials.

Friends of Ballymoney United are using their £8,996 award to deliver a three-day community festival and also purchase a defibrillator.

Garvagh Primary School PTA has £10,000 to create a safe space for children to learn through outdoor play.

Similarly, Jack Horner & Mother Goose Community Playgroups, Ballycastle, are using £9,999 to deliver an outdoor play world for pre-school children

St Joseph’s and St Mary’s Conference of St Vincent De Paul, Banagher, has £4,400 to provide summer and Christmas outings for older people in the community.

Joanne McDowell, Big Lottery Fund NI director, said: “The Big Lottery Fund’s NI Awards for All programme funds health, education, environment and community projects that help people bring about positive change in their lives, improve health and well-being, develop skills and create safer communities.

“The application process is simple and accessible and shall remain so, making it easy for applicants to successfully apply for small pots of funding that can have such a big impact on local communities and lives.”

The fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery and invests over £650 million a year in projects in health, education, environment and charitable purposes.

Since June 2004, over £6.5billion has been offered to initiatives ranging from early years intervention to commemorative travel funding for World War Two veterans. Application forms are available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk