Lottery boost for NI community and voluntary groups

A vital scheme to combat anti-social behaviour in a Bangor housing estate and a project to help care for people living with cancer have bee awarded grants from the Big Lottery Fund today.

Ten projects across Northern Ireland will share in a £806,306 grants roll-out from the Fund’s Voluntary and Community Sector programme.

Kilcooley Central Residents Association has been awarded a grant of £66,331 to extend Impact - a vital community restorative justice project which has already secured a major decrease in paramilitary attacks and anti-social behaviour in the Bangor estate.

Project Administrator Jim Martin said the lottery cash would help to ensure that the scheme could be developed in the estate and help give support to other communities in North Down.

“The support we have received from the Big Lottery Fund has been fantastic. This is the second grant we have been awarded and it means that the scheme will be able to be developed," he added.

Marie Curie Cancer Care secured a grant of £140,659 towards extension and building works at the east Belfast centre. The lottery cash will help to build more single occupancy rooms and more space for outpatient services.

Alec Barclay, the Centre’s Regional Fundraising Manager said: “This project is hugely important as it will allow us to provide more privacy and greater dignity to the cancer patients we care for. It will also improve the quality of life for cancer patients in Belfast while increasing support to the carers of cancer patients.”

Commenting on today's awards, Breidge Gadd, Big Lottery Fund’s NI Board Member said: “We are proud to be able to support these organisations in their vital work in Northern Ireland. The Big Lottery Fund delivers grants that make a difference to the most disadvantaged in our society. These awards are an example of just how important lottery funding is to local people.”

(MB)