Carlisle Youth Zone Secure Lottery Funding

Carlisle Youth Zone is celebrating after landing a Big Lottery funding grant for £100,000 a year for three years to fund a variety of support related initiatives for their young members.  

The funding has been awarded to address the following objectives:

• Support young people who suffer from social exclusion (disability, bullying, domestic violence etc)
• Help to make young people more employable
• Support young people to make better lifestyle choices

In order to meet these objectives Carlisle Youth Zone plan on rolling out a number of activities which as with any OnSide Youth Zone, has the young people at the centre of their mindset.

They plan on forming partnerships with other local youth service providers as well as working with the local schools to showcase monthly events, highlighting the youth provision available in the city.

Carlisle Youth Zone will also select 6 Young Ambassadors who will form a young people’s board and will feedback directly to the Senior Youth Zone board. Another new scheme set to take shape is the weekly ‘Make a New Friend’ project which will hope to encourage 200 young people to meet new people.

As well as all that, mentoring, cooking and support sessions are all high on the agenda as Carlisle look to involve even more young people in their work throughout 2015 thanks to this funding from the Big Lottery.

Carlisle Board Chairman, Chris Holmes said:

“Carlisle Youth Zone has successfully attracted further funding from outside the county thanks to the support and generosity of many Carlisle businesses, organisations and people who have a vision for a modern and progressive future for our young people.  We are extremely grateful for the relationship we have created between the Youth Zone and the community and businesses of Carlisle.  They have all played a part in helping us secure this extra funding”

Lynsey Buckle, Development Manager for Carlisle Youth Zone said:

“We have hundreds of young people who come from mainstream backgrounds but it is also important to us to make sure our offer is available to all our young people regardless of their backgrounds and abilities. Like minded groups come together to share ideas and enjoy activities together. Other groups are not quite ready for that so we work hard to develop their confidence to ensure that they can. The Youth Zone is a happy, safe and vibrant place that caters for hundreds of youngsters a week. This lottery funding means that we can develop the youngsters we already have and cast the net wider to help even more.”

The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery. The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK and since its inception in 2004 has awarded close to £6bn.

For more information on Carlisle Youth Zone visit their website.