PN 04-03-18 CF

26 March 2004

Lottery grant lightens the load for South Lakeland Carers

Unpaid carers in South Lakeland will be gaining help and support thanks to a £16,303 Lottery grant from the Community Fund.

South Lakeland Carers will run a project that reaches out to unpaid carers in their own rural localities offering practical domestic help and emotional support.

The service will include a befriending scheme through which unpaid carers will gain one to one assistance with daily tasks such as shopping, which will enable carers in isolated areas to access better value shops with more healthy eating options.

Employing two part time family support workers will lighten the load, providing a respite service for carers who are predominantly older people living in isolated areas where support services are not readily available.

‘The grant will make an enormous difference to people caring for family, partners or friends in need of help because they are ill, frail or disabled,’ said Brenda Sykes, Director of South Lakeland Carers. ‘It will improve independence and enable unpaid carers in South Lakeland to have the same choices as others in the community.’

It is hoped that friendships will be formed through the befriending scheme enabling carers to build their own support networks in the area.

Notes to Editors

The Community Fund shares out money raised by the National Lottery to charities and to voluntary and community groups. Out of every £1 spent on the National Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence.
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.
Since 1995 the Community Fund has awarded £2.1 billion to more than 46,000 projects. Full details are available in the grants database
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).

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