Call to help South Shields’ Ocean Road Community Association land £58,000 in National Lottery funding

Ocead Road Community Association is in the running for the National Lottery’s 2023 ‘People’s Projects’, which delivers vital grants to organisations working in the hearts of communities up and down the UK.

The South Shields centre is one of five groups in (ITV region) in the running for a share of almost £250,000 of funding to keep its variety of groups running, and develop new ones.

Liz Stephenson, centre manager, said: “The People’s Projects has given us an amazing opportunity to raise awareness and support for our work and, with your help, secure this additional much-needed funding.

“If we win, our project will make a real difference to our local community by developing new groups and sustaining current ones. We now need local people to get behind us, to show their support and vote.”

A total of 95 shortlisted community groups have been shortlisted across the country. In each region, the three projects with the most public votes will receive grants of up to £70,000.

Runner’s up in each region will be offered up to £10,000 towards their project, bringing the total funding up for grabs for communities across the UK to over £4million.

Voting opened today, May 15, and runs until 12noon on Friday, May 26.

Since it started in 2005, The People’s Projects has awarded around £45 million to over 1,000 good causes.

David Knott, chief executive of The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “The People’s Projects delivers much-needed funding to the heart of communities and showcases the incredible efforts of hard-working projects across the UK.

“The short-listed groups are truly inspirational, each delivering life-changing support to their community in different ways. It is now time for the public to have their say in how vital National Lottery funding is used in their area to make a difference to people’s lives, particularly in these challenging times.”

People can vote only once per region and will need an email address or mobile number to vote.

Those unable to vote using an email address or mobile number can contact Ocean Road Community Centre directly for a pre-paid postcard vote.

To support Ocean Road Centre and for Terms and Conditions, visit www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk or call 0800 197 8610.

National Lottery players raise more than £3million each week across the UK for good causes.

In 2022, The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, awarded over half a billion pounds (£579.8million) 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.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk