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Grants totalling £812,544 have been awarded today by the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme to community buildings projects across the UK, including over £467,000 to INTACT in Preston, Lancashire.

Ingol and Tanterton Community Trust (INTACT) receives £467,064 for a project called Unity in the Community.

Set up 20 years ago as a drop-in service, INTACT’s current facility is struggling to meet demand as more and more people are being directed to it. The charity is going to build a two storey extension to its building to provide a better multi-purpose activity, educational and training centre for local people of all ages.

INTACT works with numerous partners including CAB, Community Gateway and the Police to deliver much needed services and already provides a wide range of activities and programmes, including a homework club, holiday play schemes, youth and sports clubs, sexual health advice and a community health initiative, drop-in advice sessions and IT provision and lessons.

Its grant will enable larger groups to use the facility, more people to benefit from evening classes and activities and additional sports and exercise classes requiring more space such as line dancing and bowls.

INTACT CEO, Denise Hartley MBE said: “This is incredible news and a tremendous achievement. Everyone will benefit from having what will be a fantastic facility in their local community. The large ground floor studio will be used for a wide range of leisure and recreational activity whilst the fully equipped state of the art training room on the second floor will enable a range of vocational and non-vocational learning activities.”

Bill Shannon, Chair of Intact said “Everyone is delighted at this news. During the last two years 2,000 people have accessed the centres facilities and for many it has been a lifeline.

Providing an improved local community centre will continue to help to reduce isolation, increase participation and remove barriers to learning.” 

In the North East, Women’s Health in South Tyneside (WHiST) has been awarded £345,480 from the Big Lottery Fund. Located in South Shields, WHiST is a charity that provides health and support services to women experiencing a range of physical and mental health problems, complementing state provision. The funding will mean WHiST can extend its existing premises to include additional consulting/counselling rooms where even more much needed services can be provided to more women.

In Truro, Cornwall, organisations including the local Pony Club, Young Farmers and the local older people’s lunch club are excited by the news that Philleigh Parish Hall has successfully secured a development grant of £7,502 towards regenerating its only community hall, which was once the Old Parochial School building and is now over 150 years old. Located in the district of Carrick, the village has no school, shop or bus service, with the only other public facilities currently being a pub and a church. Revitalising the Parish Hall will bring a new lease of life to the community. Existing users will be able to continue using it and additional activities for local people, young and old, will also be available such as health and fitness classes, dance classes and Cornish cheese and wine evenings. The whole community of Philleigh stands to benefit when the work has been completed. This development grant will see professionals employed, plans drawn up and the groundwork for the project laid.

In the South East, two projects are celebrating today. Beckley and Stowood Parish Council in Oxford has secured a development grant of £17,595 towards replacing the existing deteriorating 60 year old village hall with a modern facility, and Westbury Parish Council in Brackley, Northamptonshire receives a development grant of £29,050 to enable plans to begin on restoring and improving its ageing village hall that dates back to 1975. Both projects will bring a renewed sense of community to their villages, providing the space and facilities for activities for local people, improving wellbeing and reducing isolation.

In the West Midlands, Fegg Hayes Methodist Church in Stoke-on-Trent is also today receiving Big Lottery funding of £30,000 towards turning its church hall into a vibrant community hub which can be enjoyed by all the local residents. The current church hall is a prefabricated building dating back to 1956 that has no disabled access and limited facilities. A re-vamped community hub will provide a much needed local venue for local people and community groups.

Friends R Us in Hackney, London, also receives a development grant of £44,460 to remodel and extend its premises. The charity, based in Stamford Hill, was set up to improve the lives of local children in the community. The centre gives its members access to sports, crafts and theatre activities, and even stages three days of theatre productions for audiences of up to 2,000 people in Camden Town annually.

Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund spokesperson, said: “These Reaching Communities awards make a significant difference to each community project that receives them and can be enormously helpful right from the outset of a project, funding planning and legal processes. Ultimately, they can mean the difference between an older person being able to enjoy the social life afforded by a community hub rather than being lonely and isolated, or a young person enjoying healthy, sporting activities after school instead of hanging around the streets. Thanks to today’s awards, many more communities and individuals will benefit from targeted support.”

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Notes to editors

• The Big Lottery Fund, 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.
• The Fund 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.
• In the year ending 31 March 2013, 28% of total National Lottery revenue was returned to the Good Causes
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.