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The Big Lottery Fund is changing, quite substantially, quite significantly. We have £1.5 Billion
to spend between now and 2015 but what we realise as a Lottery distributor is that
its people and communities on the ground that make the difference with Lottery money. What
we want to do is to have greater effect with that money -- we want people to have the
opportunity to turn their ambitions and ideas into reality, but there's a core underpinning
theme. People Powered Change. People Powered Change. People Powered Change.
We fundamentally believe that, actually, if you take a different approach to people and communities in need;
provide the tools, the resources and the skills around a community ... magic can happen. And for
us that means People Powered Change -- the abiding philosophy for Lottery money and Lottery distribution
in England is the philosophy People Powered Change, i.e. if people are given the power
can make positive change, lasting change happen. So people will see more often us naming
issues and hoping to resolve problems on the ground. Initially when we started Justlife
it was simply a lunchtime activity on a Monday, but as things grew we sort of got more bits
of other funding and appointed a part-time worker -- we realised that we had identified
a real sort of major need in the neighbourhood. We went to the Big Lottery Fund for a larger
sum of money and we were successful in receiving that. One man in particular we had become
really good friends with, in 2006 we heard news that he'd been released from prison
and was clean and dry and a few short weeks after that we heard that he had died from
a *** overdose. We decided we had to act and do something to intervene for the many
dozens of people that live in accommodation. These thirty forty people that come here every day
wouldn't have anything. Gary -- what he's done here is unbelievable. People are coming
in, they are coming straight into the centre, they are talking to our housing workers -- it
just sort of becomes second nature to try and help and support in some way.
A lot of young people approached me and were just saying 'you know we go to the job centre and we
tell them what skills we have, the skills that they do have and then they are not given
the right job or they are not given the motivation to look for jobs that suit their skills.
They are just told to stack shelves in the supermarket. It's really important making
sure that young people are at the top of the ladder, not at the bottom and they can get
their voice on an equal playing field where everybody's involved from the top of the
decision making right down to the bottom of the implementation. We spoke to 2000 young
people within a week between twenty of us, you know that is like a strong number, so that
I think, even that shows involving young people has already proved a point that it's working.
People Powered Change. People Powered Change. People Powered Change.
We deliver basic IT training to people over 50 throughout the whole of Nottinghamshire. We're looking
for people who have got no computer knowledge or perhaps just a tiny bit of computer knowledge.
The word processor I am trying to get hands on to and the Internet -- I find that useful
from the point of view of gardening and my wife asks me occasionally to get recipes off
it, but there is still a lot more that I think I need to know about though. I am really thankful
that this is open to me. Older people are feeling that they're left behind. After
6 weeks with us they tell me that they feel like they've joined the modern world of
Internet technology and they are now able to do things that they just hear other people
talking about.
What we want to do is to use the power of money but also influence to encourage different
ways of working, whether that is to do with people with multiple and complex needs, whether
it is young people furthest from the labour market, whether it's children and families
in the most disadvantaged circumstances. Gleadless Valley -- it's an area that has high levels
of deprivation so it does have a lot of issues in this area. There's isolation, we have
motivational issues so to get people to come out of their houses into training -- it's
a real tough job but that's what we're here to do. One of the learning champions
noticed that I had been self harming and that I had got bandages on my arms. So she asked
me if I wanted to do a course called 'how to feel good about yourself'. I'm at the
best part of my life now. Gleadless Valley Community Forum is there for local people
because local people have asked for it. Without the input of local people it wouldn't exist
and without the continued attendance of local people on all the courses it won't exist
further into the future.
We know what need is about, we've worked with people; we've learnt from others, we've learnt from ourselves to understand how need takes place. We want
to be able to find a way by working with the voluntary sector, communities themselves to
see if we can create a different approach and solution to some of the diehard problems
that all of us have experienced for many years. That's how the Big Lottery in England can
add real measurable value. The Awards for All grant's really made a massive impact
on us because it has allowed us to carry on with projects that we wouldn't have been
able to carry on with. It was fantastic, words just can't explain it, because £50,000
is an awful lot of money and the good that we have been able to do here with the money
is fantastic. Oh I think probably the Lottery money made it all possible. People Powered
Change. People Powered Change. People Powered Change.