The Community Fund awards £5 million to national charities with youth groups getting the lions share

The Community Fund awards £5 million to national charities with youth groups getting the lions share Youth Hostels, the homeless, children and disabled people are among those to benefit from the Community Fund's latest round of awards to national charities, announced today. More than £5 million has been awarded to 20 groups to help address poverty and disadvantage throughout the UK. The largest award of £525,150 goes to the Youth Hostels Association (England and Wales) for a project working with the Scottish Youth Hostels Association (SYHA) and Hostelling International Northern Ireland (HINI), which will help groups such as hostel users, rural communities and volunteers. Working under the banner of "Valve UK", the organisations aim to increase the use of hostels and volunteers, particularly those from disabled or ethnic minority backgrounds, thereby benefiting the surrounding areas. Young people will also benefit from a £441,050 grant to Disability Equality in Education, which promotes inclusion of pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools. It does so by providing training to schools, colleges and local authorities from trainers who are disabled themselves. The three year grant will recruit trainers from groups who are currently under represented, including black and minority ethnic disabled people. It is estimated that 10,000 education professionals will benefit and 30 new trainers will be recruited. Homeless people will get help to find homes thanks to a ££409,525 grant to the National Rent Deposit Forum. This organisation sets up rent deposit guarantee schemes across the UK to help homeless people find private rented accommodation. The schemes hold funds to guarantee deposits and rent to private landlords. The money will develop an existing Community Fund grant to set up new schemes and build partnerships with housing organisations. It is estimated that almost 350,000 people will benefit over the next three years. A grant of £38,850 to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths will help the organisation advise parents of new-born babies on sudden infant death syndrome. Their grant will produce a picture based leaflet giving advice on how to keep babies safe. These leaflets will be distributed to every hospital in the country and visits will be made to maternity units. The aim is to distribute the leaflet to 150,000 parents of new- born babies each year. Chair of the Community Fund, Diana Brittan said, "It is quite right that young people should be benefiting to the tune of around £1 million in this round of grant announcements. If we can help young people start life on the right footing we prevent problems building up for the future. "The Youth Hostel Association and Disability Equality in Education are very worthwhile courses for us to fund as are the many other groups we are enabling in this round of grant announcements. "The grants we have made today reflect our strategic funding priorities, recently announced in our Strategic Plan 2002 to 2007. These target beneficiary groups most in need throughout the UK and include young people, disabled people and those disadvantaged by social or economic change." Other organisations awarded a grant today include: Action to Regenerate Community Trust, Advance Housing and Support Ltd, Conference on Crack and Cocaine, InContact (Action on Incontinence), Langdale/Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, NCVO, the National Deaf Children's Society, Network Drugs Advice Project, the Orpheus Trust, Peak District Rural Deprivation Forum, the Refugee Council, the Royal Society for Nature Conservation, Shared Care Network, Single Parent Action Network, Syncope Trust and Reflex Anoxic Seizures (STARS), and Women's Design Service. For media enquiries contact: Jane Rogers on 020 7747 5352 or Boni Sones on 07703 716961. Notes to editors: 1. A detailed list of today's awards is available by calling one of the above numbers or by visiting our website at www.community- fund.org.uk 2. The Community Fund shares out money raised by the National Lottery to charities and to voluntary and community groups. Out of every £1 spent on the National Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence. 3. Community Fund is the operating name of the National Lottery Charities Board. We are the country's biggest funder of charities and voluntary groups. 4. Since 1995 the Community Fund has awarded £2.2 billion to more than 48,000 projects. Full details are available on our website at www.community-fund.org.uk. 5. Anyone interested in applying for a grant should visit our website or call one of our enquiries officers on 0116 258 7031 (for England-wide grants) or 020 7747 5299 (for UK-wide grants). ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/06/19/20020619BIT01570/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/06/19/20020619BIT01570/wkr0002.pdf