IKEA UK and The National Lottery Community Fund announce over £75,000 to support Welsh communities to become more connected and resilient places

The National Lottery Community Fund and IKEA UK have announced over £75,000 (£76,694) of funding to 18 community groups across Wales to inspire, enable and resource people to invest in their local community as an extension of their home.

The pilot partnership between the largest funder of community activity and world’s largest home furnishing retailer, is supporting local communities with grants of up to £5,000 to build back better and differently as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Places Called Home programme builds on the energy and creativity of communities coming together during the crisis to support each other and aims to inspire them to take action around healthy and sustainable living, while learning from each other and building meaningful connections.

The grants are among over 330 being awarded across the UK totalling £1.5 million. Alongside the funding, which is made up of £1 million thanks to National Lottery players and £500,000 from IKEA UK. Click here to download a list of all the project awarded in Wales.

One project in Flintshire includes Enbarr Foundation CIC. They received £4,832 to run a festival with the ultimate plan to bring communities back together. series of events to celebrate all cultures with centralising around this community heritage site.

Welcoming the news, Vicki Roskams from Enbarr Foundation CIC, said: “Due to the amazing funding from both the National Lottery / IKEA, Enbarr can continue working with people in the local community who are anxious regards this winter due to the recent impact of COVID and create not just a place to help raise skills and confidence, but one that they can call home, and feel safe and part of the family, and we can help raise awareness of critical issues impacting our communities of social isolation, loneliness, safety, climate change and food poverty.

“Through the amazing work of Enbarr’s Guardians who support all our initiatives, we help not only the promotion of rebuild, upcycle, and repurpose of waste and household products, but a shared ethos to create a better future for the planet and future generations, and the awareness and skills to replicate it in their own homes increasing the impact.

“Your funding could not have come at a better time and will now enable supporting more people to create their Christmas wish, whether material or aspirational, as kindness to others and sharing skills and knowledge does not cost a thing.”

In Rhondda Cynon Taff, Bryncynon Community Revival Strategy Ltd will use £4,573 to furnish their food box room in the Feel Good Factory so that vulnerable, isolated older people who are receiving free food boxes delivered to their homes can get out of the house to choose their own food from a specially adapted food pantry. Recipients would be therefore less reliant on what they are given and able to choose what they need.

On receiving the grant, Nina Finnigan, said: “The Listening Project volunteers are delighted to receive funding from “Places Called Home” and thank National Lottery players and IKEA for their support. We now have a wonderful opportunity to develop our food pantry, a safe place where our older people can relax in comfortable surroundings, have a cup of tea, chat with each other, choose their own food rather than relying on having a food box delivered to their homes and generally encourage participation in other activities. The room will also double up as one in which our volunteers (many of them older people themselves) can manage for their own use for relaxation and training.

“Thank you so much – National Lottery players can be sure that their money is contributing to helping older people reintegrate into their community after a long period of loneliness and isolation during the covid pandemic.”

Emma Ackerman, Funding Strategy Director at The National Lottery Community Fund said: “As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that we can build on the energy and creativity we’ve seen to make stronger communities and a better everyday life. We’re delighted that together with IKEA and National Lottery players we have been able to support this across the UK with our pilot partnership and funding announced today.”

ENDS

Date published: 15 October, 2021
Region: Wales

Notes to Editors

Notes to Editors:

More information about the pilot partnership and it’s aims can be found in this blog.

About The National Lottery Community Fund:

We are the largest funder of community activity in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.

We are passionate about funding great ideas that matter to communities and make a difference to people’s lives. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.

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About IKEA UK:

IKEA Retail UK is part of Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities). Ingka Group is one of 11 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA sales channels under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. It is the world’s largest home furnishing retailer operating 367 IKEA stores in 30 markets. These IKEA stores had 706 million visits during FY20, and 3.6 billion people visited www.IKEA.com.

The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people, by offering a wide range of well-designed and functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many as possible will be able to afford them. This vision goes beyond home furnishing: we also want our business to have a positive impact on people and the planet.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. As part of our People and Planet Positive strategy, we want to inspire and enable the many to live more healthy and sustainable lives by making it easy and affordable through our products, services and expertise; we’re transforming into a circular and climate positive business, reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits, while growing our business; and we aim to have a positive social impact wherever we are in the world. From our co-workers and suppliers, to the communities where we operate and source our materials, we always strive to promote equality, diversity and respect for human rights.

Places Called Home

IKEA UK and The National Lottery Community Fund have come together to support thriving, resilient and sustainable communities across the UK. Places Called Home is a new £1.5 million fund which aims to inspire and enable communities to invest in their local community as an extension of their home.