Bardsley Youth Project, is today celebrating after being awarded almost £450K in National Lottery funding to support its work with homeless young people in Coventry. Based on Hill Top, in the historic cathedral quarter, the charity will use the money to support Coventry’s homeless young people, many of whom are classed as hidden homeless, sofa surfing, in temporary accomodation and with no permanent home to call their own.
The new funding is from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK. With the support of this lottery funding, Bardsley Youth Project will continue to support some of the most vulnerable young people in our city. The funding bid marks the commencement of Bardsley’s Walking with Young People Project. This initiative will see roughly 400 young people in Coventry facing housing issues receive coaching over five years. The coaching will support young people, who many might think would not succeed in life, to address their barriers to not only achieving housing stability, but thriving.
Rachel Orman, Communication and Fundraising Worker for Bardsley Youth Project, says: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognized our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to support Coventry’s young people navigate the complex issue of homelessness. This is important because homelessness doesn’t just happen. There are usually many complicated social, emotional, and financial factors that culminate in homelessness. Our work tackles these key risk factors, reducing the risk of serial homelessness, which unfortunately is quite common. We support young people to develop the skills and resources they need to find accommodation, furnish it and sustain a place of their own.”
The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.
As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality.
To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk