Wildgoose Rural Training has been awarded over £68,000 of National Lottery funding, after it was announced as one of the winners of The People’s Projects campaign.
The farm-based day service from Hallow in Worcester, helps to bring people with disabilities together, and is regularly used by over 110 Adults and 40 young school age students, who struggle to attend school.
It gives them the chance to learn from new experiences, out and about in the open air. This can be anything from interacting with animals, learning what goes into looking after a farm, to woodwork and maintaining vehicles.
The new funding will support them to build new teaching spaces, create employment opportunities, buy new teaching resources and grow organic produce to make wholesome food.
It will also give those who attend an opportunity to care for animals, and participate in woodworking, mechanics and blacksmithing.
The service, moved to a brand new 42 acre site in 2019, and is contracted by the County Council as a day opportunity for adults with disabilities.
Councillor Adrian Hardman, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care at ϲͼ County Council, said: “I’m thrilled for Wildgoose Rural Training winning this substantial funding from the National Lottery, it is incredibly well deserved. This funding will allow them to continue the fantastic work they do with people with disabilities, and offer a wider set of learning opportunities, out in the open air.”
Jim Hidderley, Managing Director for Wildgoose Rural Training said: “We are all so pleased to receive this funding, it will make a massive difference to us. We are also very thankful to those who voted, you are the folks who made the difference and won the funding for us. We are looking forward to providing even more high quality and engaging activities for all our students.”
Blondel Cluff CBE, Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The People’s Projects highlights the incredible work of inspiring community groups across the UK. We are proud to have given local people throughout the country a say in where over £4 million of vital National Lottery funding will go. We congratulate this year’s winners and look forward to seeing them make a life-changing difference in their communities.”
The National Lottery Community Fund, ITV, UTV and the Sunday Mail (in Scotland) have teamed up to give the public a chance to decide how National Lottery funding should be put to good use in their local area through The People’s Projects.
Since it started in 2005, The People’s Projects has awarded around £45 million to over 1,000 good causes.
The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week across the UK for good causes. Last year The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK, awarded over half a billion pounds (£588.2m) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 14,500 projects. Over the last three years, its funding has reached every constituency and every local authority in the UK.
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