Ashes to Gold in Coleraine needs YOUR votes to win up to £70k of National Lottery funds

Back after a three-year break, The National Lottery Community Fund and UTV have teamed up to give the public a chance to decide how National Lottery funding should be put to good use in their local area.

Ashes to Gold is one of five groups who will have the opportunity to showcase their work from May 15-18 on UTV as they go head-to-head in a public vote in this year’s The People’s Projects to help them make an extraordinary difference to their community.

If successful, the GROW project, run by Ashes to Gold in Coleraine, will develop an outdoor kitchen and run courses to teach the community to grow and cook their own food, save money and minimise food waste. Mindfulness walks will be included in the sessions to help people engage with nature.

The GROW project will campaign for votes against the Carers Matter project by Brain Injury Matters in Belfast, the Social Bytes project by Crisis Café in Newry, The Empathy Tent project by Parenting NI in Derry/Londonderry and The UP! Programme by Replay Theatre Company in Belfast.

The three projects with the most public votes will receive grants of up to £70,000. This funding will help make a real difference to people’s lives, particularly in these difficult times. The runners up will be offered up to £10,000 towards their project.

Voting opens at 9am on Monday, May 15 and closes at noon on Friday, May 26.

People can vote only once per region and will need an email address or mobile number to vote. Visit www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk to vote, read the terms and conditions and see a full list of projects involved across the UK.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players, who raise over £30 million each week across the UK for good causes. Since it started in 2005, The People’s Projects has awarded around £45 million to over 1,000 good causes.