The Big Lottery Fund Wales Announces Successful Bids For Share of Six Million Pound Fund

The Big Lottery Fund Wales is announcing (August 7) the thirteen successful bids for a share of its six million pound fund designed to help families in poverty but with at least one adult working. With this fund, the Big Lottery Fund is piloting a new way of grant giving which enables organisations to spend time developing their project with the working families it is intended to support. 

 Citizens UK will use community organising methodology to recruit and nurture citizen leaders from working families who will lead the action needed to create change around the issues they care about in their communities. The project will be delivered in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr Tydfil and Pembrokeshire.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Briefing on Poverty in Wales 2018 noted that more people were in work, but that the risk of poverty has risen for working households. The report adds “Poverty is highest among families with children”. Its report “Prosperity without Poverty: a framework for action in Wales” includes the following statement: “The level of Poverty in the UK is shameful. This should be a place where everyone can live a decent, secure life. Instead 13 million people – half of whom are in a working family – are living without enough to meet their needs”

(Julia Unwin CBE, former Chief Executive Joseph Rowntree Foundation).

A full list of the other successful bids is available above. Grants are made possible thanks to people who play the National Lottery.

Jonathan Cox, Lead Organiser of Citizens Cymru Wales, said:

“Community organising already has a track record of helping working families in Wales to take action for change. It is a method that puts ordinary people in the lead – enabling them to take the issues they most care about in their communities, and transform them into campaigns that create tangible local change, or scale up to make impact across the nation, such as through the Living Wage campaign, which has redistributed £15 million to lowest-paid people since 2014. We are delighted to be part of an initiative which will enable us to train hundreds more working families across Wales to build alliances, listen to their communities, and take action that transforms their lives and those of their communities.”

Andrew Brown, Funding Manager for the Big Lottery Fund said:

“We want to show that we are serious about putting people in the lead and funding development work involving the people who will benefit from the project is a big step in that direction. We want organisations to make the leap and really listen to what the families want and need. We are looking forward to finding out what the Citizens Action UK will plan to do with the grant.”