060204 24 groups have just heard

6 February 2004

Community Fund announces its first grants of the year

24 groups accross the South East have just heard that they are to receive over £3.3 million for their community projects.

Amongst the groups celebrating the news is Normandy Veterans Association Canterbury. Their £13,515 grant will allow veterans and widows will return to the site of the D-day landings on the 60th anniversary of the battle. They will have the opportunity to pay their respects to old comrades, meet up with old friends and discuss their memories of the Second World War.

Phillippa Saray, Regional Manager of the Community Fund South East says: 'This grant means that the veterans and widows will have the chance to honour their fallen comrades and benefit from meeting up with old friends. It's an example of how Lottery funding is helping to combat social isolation amongst older people through projects that have a big impact on their lives.

The local authority areas benefiting from grants awarded in this announcement are:

Berkshire: £416,982
Reading: 1 Grant worth £266,450
West Berkshire: 1 Grant worth £150,532

Buckinghamshire: £257,314
Aylesbury Vale: 1 Grant worth £203,314
Chiltern: 1 Grant worth £54,000

East Sussex and Brighton and Hove: £156,892
Brighton and Hove: 1 Grant worth £156,892

Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton: £963,871
Basingstoke and Deane: 1 Grant worth £107,742
Havant: 1 Grant worth £54,338
Portsmouth: 3 Grants worth £513,330
Southampton: 1 Grant worth £128,461
Winchester: 1 Grant worth £160,000

Kent and Medway: £984,736
Canterbury: 2 Grants worth £276,061
Medway: 1 Grant worth £59,701
Shepway: 1 Grant worth £118,710
Thanet: 3 Grants worth £530,264

Oxfordshire: £193,289
Oxford: 1 Grant worth £55,587
South Oxfordshire: 1 Grant worth £137,702

Surrey: £21,466
Waverley: 1 Grant worth £21,466

West Sussex: £314,310
Crawley: 1 Grant worth £164,371
Horsham: 1 Grant worth £149,939

For more information on all of today's awards, follow the link on the right hand side of this page.

For details of all the grants we have awarded to date see the 'What we've funded' > 'Search past grants' section of our website.

Notes to Editors

Community Fund gives out money raised by the National Lottery to charities, voluntary and community groups. Out of every £1 spent on the National Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence.
Since 1995 Community Fund has awarded over 59,000 grants worth more than £2.7 billion to UK charities and voluntary groups.
The legal name of the Community Fund remains the National Lottery Charities Board. The National Lottery Charities Board was set up in 1994 and changed its operation name to Community Fund Lottery money making a difference in April 2001.
Next year the Community Fund is to merge with the New Opportunities Fund in advance of creating a new National Lottery distributor that will administer 50 per cent of all good cause funding. The merger will not affect current programmes, beneficiaries or applications. Further details on the new lottery distributor are expected to be available in Spring 2004.
The New Opportunities Fund distributes National Lottery money to health, education and environment projects across the UK. We intend to support sustainable projects that will improve the quality of life of people throughout the UK, address the needs of those who are most disadvantaged in society, encourage community participation and complement relevant local and national strategies and programmes. (Funding for programmes is divided between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales on the basis of population weighted to reflect levels of deprivation).

Media contacts

For more information contact Resource Base on 023 8023 6806.

Download full list of today's awards and project summaries (Word document)