WIREDGOV

The London velodrome where Sir Bradley Wiggins started competitive racing is set to host an altogether different cycling event – a theatre performance featuring visually impaired dancers aiming to raise awareness of disability cycling and the safety issues.

Wheels for Wellbeing are partnering up with the Bicycle Ballet dance company and will use a  grant of £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme to put on a work-in-progress performance of ‘Everyday Hero’ at the Herne Hill Velodrome, south east London.

The project is just one of 133 projects in London sharing £1,181,289 in the latest round of Awards for All grants.

Everyday Hero tells the story of a group of friends on a quest for adventure and self-discovery. Through real and imagined landscapes, helped and hindered by people and creatures along the way, they must battle demons to return with untold riches on a tandem bicycle.

An advance preview will take place on Saturday 6 June to coincide with the launch of the velodrome’s new track facilities. The finished production will then go on the road over the summer as people across the country dust of their bikes to make the most of the brief British sunshine.

Isabelle Clement is the Director at Wheels for Wellbeing. She said: “This project is all about reaching out to people with a visual impairment and telling them not to assume they can’t enjoy the wonderful sport of cycling. By attracting more Visually Impaired cyclists, we can learn from their experience to help develop new ways of approaching disability cycling issues including the worries over safety.
 
“However it’s not just disabled people who can get involved. For example, as part of this project we will be recruiting able bodied cyclists to pair up with disabled people to act as their tandem pilots. Who knows, we could find the next Paralympic cycling stars right here on the streets of London.”

Meanwhile, other projects celebrating a funding fillip today include Basic Sports & Fitness in Newham who will use a grant of £10,000 to deliver non-contact boxing training sessions for local young people and adults to combat obesity and ill health conditions. Mind in Haringey has received £9,975 to run a gardening project for adults with mental ill-health and the Definitely Theatre in Camden will use their £9,856 award to hold a summer school with workshops designed to build the confidence and communication skills of young deaf people who are not fluent in sign language.

Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund England Head of Communications, said: “I’m proud that the Big Lottery Fund is able to make such a huge difference to so many charities and community groups across London. I hope today’s announcement inspires more people to get in touch and find out how they could benefit from an Awards for All grant.”

Full list of awards announced in London yesterday

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Ask BIG a question here: https://ask.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Follow BIG on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigLotteryFund #BIGlf
Find BIG on facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund

Notes to Editors

• Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme aims to help improve local communities and the lives of people most in need. You can apply to Awards for All only if you are a community group, not for profit group, Parish or Town Council, health body, or school.
• Grants ranging from £300 to £10,000 are available to fund a specific project or activity.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 BIG has awarded close to £6bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.