Organisations in Welsh communities celebrate grants from The National Lottery Community Fund

52 organisations across Wales celebrate their share of £500,000 in grants this month from The National Lottery Community Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, the grants awarded will allow organisations to support their communities with a variety of matters such as supporting people in their communities with their mental health and isolation with the help of therapy pets and their volunteers.

Pets as Therapy from Bridgend are celebrating a grant award of £10,000 this month. Their grant will support the organisation in recruiting and training volunteers that will be able to provide pet therapies to people, young and old across Wales who are suffering from rural isolation and poor mental health. The £10,000 grant will be used to fund the staff to provide the training, volunteer training expenses, translation services, venue costs and publicity.

Keith Poultney from Wales is a PAT Volunteer with his 10-year-old black Labrador Bella. The PAT Team visits a refugee centre and spends time with Ukrainian families. He said: “Many of families have been at the refugee centre for over six months and there are growing concerns over their mental wellbeing. I know people have left their family pets behind in Ukraine. One young boy often comes to sit by Bella and will quietly and gently stroke her. Apparently, he had to leave his pet cat named Simba when they fled from their home.

There is also a much older lady who will always come across to enthusiastically fuss Bella. I learnt that recently she has had to put her husband who has dementia in a residential home. So now she finds herself alone in a foreign country. Wherever we go, Bella always puts a smile on peoples’ faces. She provides for many that brief welcome from the grind of everyday life. That’s why I volunteer. I can’t think of anything more rewarding.”

Tenovus Cancer Care in Cardiff have also been awarded £10,000 by the National Lottery Community Fund this month. Tenovus Cancer Care will use their grant to provide welfare benefit advice for those across Wales who have cancer, which will help them cope with the financial impacts of their illness as well as the cost-of-living crisis. The money awarded will be used to fund staffing costs, staff training, travel expenses and for the publicity of their service.

Tammi Lyons, Benefits Advisor at Tenovus Cancer Care said: “We are speaking to more and more people who are feeling the effect of life getting more expensive. Lots of people are struggling with the cost of living, but for someone with a cancer diagnosis, costs can spiral. Time off sick from work, travel to all the appointments, needing to buy specialist items, it really adds up. We can provide advice and support to ease the pressure”.

In Conwy, Action for Children will support the mental wellbeing of children and young people in rural areas of Conwy and Denbighshire with their £10,000 awarded grant from The National Lottery Community Fund. They will deliver training and workshops for adults, young people, and children in partnership with North Wales Rugby that will provide them with their tools to support their mental health. The grant will be used to fund salary costs, activity resources and materials and travel expenses.

Chris Dunne, Pan Wales Mental Health Development Lead Action for Children said: “Our Bouncing Back programmes have been improving the mental health of our young people across Wales.  It’s more important than ever as we emerge from the Covid pandemic and negotiate a cost-of-living crisis that we continue this vital work in our communities.  I’m delighted RGC and the National Lottery Community Fund share our passion and are supporting the opportunity to develop Bouncing Back in North Wales RGC region significantly further.”

After being awarded a grant of £9,991, Home-Start County Borough of Wrexham will be offering weekly play sessions to families with children between new-born age and five years old that are experiencing hardship in the area. This will provide an immense amount of support to families, not only through the play sessions, but by the connections that will be made within the groups with other families going through similar hardships.

Pam Hoyle, Director of Home-Start County Borough of Wrexham said: “Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund for this wonderful grant which will support families to play and have fun together. Life can be hard as a parent of young children and groups can be so off-putting but incredibly beneficial to young children learning how to make friends. We will be able to break down the barriers for parents to attend our preschool family group and support everyone to have fun and play.”

Ruth Bates, Head of Communications for The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK, and it’s because of the players we at The National Lottery Community Fund are able to fund these fantastic groups working across Wales. It is truly amazing the difference that can be made in communities and we thank the many volunteers providing the much-needed support in their communities.”

Thanks to National Lottery players last year we:

• awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK.
• supported over 14,000 projects to turn their great ideas into reality and make a difference in their communities.
• funded over 8,000 projects to bring communities together, over 7,500 supporting health and well-being and over 1,000 environmental projects.
• Over eight in ten (83%) of our grants are for under £10,000 – going to grassroots groups and charities across the UK that are bringing to life amazing ideas that matter to their communities.