Big Day Out comes to town

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Local groups across Renfrewshire will find out how they could benefit from a share of £257 million of National Lottery money when ‘The Big Day Out’ comes to town on Thursday 27 July. The Big Lottery Fund team will be on hand at the Wynd Centre, 6 School Wynd Street, Paisley to provide practical advice and support for local groups who are looking for lottery funding, want to work up their ideas or simply find out more about the work of the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland.

Over the next three years, the Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has £257 million to invest in Scotland’s communities through its new multi-million pound fund - 'Investing in Communities'. To make sure that all community groups across Scotland have equal access to this funding, the Big Lottery Fund will be touring the country with the Big Day Out, along the way supporting groups and helper agencies to submit strong applications for funding.

Through Investing in Communities, the Big Lottery Fund wants to support projects that offer people better chances in life and create healthier and safer communities that are more able to tackle inequalities and that have better and more sustainable services and environments.

On 27 July, from 2pm until 5pm Big Lottery Fund funding advisers will be on hand at the Wynd Centre to provide one to one support and advice to individual groups. This could be anything from talking through a project idea or asking for specific help in filling in an application form. Any local group in Renfrewshire wanting to book one of these sessions should contact Renfrewshire Council for Voluntary Service on 0141 587 2487.

Following the one to one sessions all local groups from across Renfrewshire are invited to attend an evening presentation in the same venue at 6pm which will provide information on Investing in Communities, what it aims to achieve and how groups can apply.

Big Lottery Fund Scotland director Dharmendra Kanani, said: “Through our new Investing in Communities portfolio, the Big Lottery Fund wants to make it easier for local groups to apply for and get lottery money. We also want to make sure that our funding is available to communities across Scotland and that local people get the support and advice they need to submit stronger applications for funding. That’s where the Big Day Out comes in.

“Over the summer, our outreach team will be touring the length and breadth of the country providing support to helper agencies and community groups in each of Scotland’s local authority areas.

“We believe that our funding can achieve long term social change in Scotland. This means changing the way in which we work with applicants by providing them with more help, support and advice before, during and after the lifetime of their funding. So if you are a group with an idea for lottery funding, you need advice on how to make a good application or you simply want to find out more about the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland then the Big Day Out is for you.”

Councillor McNally, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s General Management Policy Board, added: “Lottery funding is an excellent way of supporting local projects. Over the past three years groups in Renfrewshire have successfully bid for over £4.7 million in lottery grants. The benefits of this funding can be felt throughout the area, as many of the lottery funded projects in Renfrewshire serve our local communities and over 130 groups received funding in 2005 alone. I would urge all groups to get involved and go along to the day to find out what funding they could be entitled to.”

For further information contact Landa Rolland at the Big Lottery Fund Press Office (Scotland): 0141 242 1415. Full details of Big Lottery Fund grants and programmes are available at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Press Release: Thursday 13 July 2006