Northern Irish eyes are smiling because last week the Big Lottery Fund awarded four Lottery grants totalling nearly £240,000 to community projects that can now go on to inspire people to get more involved in their local area.
Community projects from all over Northern Ireland were encouraged to compete for the funding. UTV regional news featured the finalists and the public voted to decide which great cause received People’s Millions funding.
The successful Northern Ireland community projects are:
- Holy Child Primary School’s Andersonstown Eco Dream Playground project West Belfast £60,000
- Greenlight Gateway’s Space to Grow project, Ballycastle, £60,000
- Cloughmills Community Action Team’s Happiness project – Peas and Love, Cloughmills, £57,533
Highest runner up:
- National Council of YMCA’s of Ireland’s Adventure Activity Area project, Newcastle, £60,000
Take a look at a short film created by the Big Lottery Fund which shows parents, staff and pupils from Holy Child Primary School in west Belfast celebrating winning £60k from this year’s People’s Millions competition in Northern Ireland.For the successful projects there is a great sense of community joy and celebration as they kick start project delivery. Indeed they have plenty of reason to join The Big Lunch, June 2012 celebrating the progress they will have made with their ventures.
Greenlight Gateway joined The Big Lunch during their campaign and are excited about the journey ahead. Greenlight Gateway realised the benefits of mobilising the whole community to support their project so they were quick to understand how holding a simple event like The Big Lunch gives everyone a reason to come together and develop new friendships and stronger more sustainable communites. We hope to catch up with all the competitors to share their story and talk about how they too can join in and mobilise local people’s community spirit.
Frank Hewitt, Big Lottery Fund Northern Ireland Chair, said: “The competition in the People’s Million’s in Northern Ireland has been really strong this year, and we’ve been so impressed with the strength of community spirit shown, with people getting behind their local project. I look forward to seeing these projects and the difference they will make in their communities when they open in 2012.”
Visit The People’s Millions and Jubilee People’s Millions website to find out the results in your local region.
