Ashfield Voluntary Action celebrates after receiving £302,518 of National Lottery funding

5 June 2025

Ashfield Voluntary Action celebrates after receiving £302,518 of National Lottery funding to deliver Community - Led Engagement Outcomes (CLEO)

A local charity, Ashfield Voluntary Action, is today celebrating after being awarded over £300,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work within communities in the Ashfield District. The charity, based in Ashfield Health and Wellbeing Centre in Kirkby in Ashfield, will use the money to work directly with residents in six wards to help them become the architects for the future of their area. This award will create 5 new employment opportunities.

Ashfield Voluntary Action has been running since 2001, working directly with communities, local groups and charities to support the community and voluntary sector within Ashfield. Ashfield Voluntary Action delivers services for the benefit of local Communities and also runs its own groups. Ashfield Voluntary Action recruits and trains volunteers for organisations, helps groups with funding applications and training. It also works directly to set up new groups, charities and community interest companies. Ashfield Voluntary Action began by helping communities that had lost jobs, now in its 24th year, and a great deal of experience later, it is really well-placed to lead CLEO. Over the past year, it has driven innovation in community power and voice and will be working with more communities over the coming three years.

The new funding 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, will see six new resident action groups created forming a support network across six wards to assist them to deliver what they decide to do in their local area, building a sense of neighbourliness, local action and fun.

The resident action groups will be unique to each area with the priorities set by the groups themselves. Training and support will be given.

John Aylward, Chair of Ashfield Voluntary Action, says: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to press on with our plans to broaden the range of opportunities available to local communities. This is important because it helps communities become more resilient more connected and more empowered.”

Jenni Bishop, Community Champion at Coxmoor Residents Action Groups, says: “With this award, Ashfield Voluntary Action will be able to support the CRAG to develop the projects planned for Coxmoor. It will also enable us to work with other Ashfield residents to spread community action in all its forms.”

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

Ends

Contact

Una Key, CEO of Ashfield Voluntary Action u.key@ashfieldvoluntaryaction.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

About The National Lottery Community Fund

We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name.

We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.

We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.

As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:

1. Come together

2. Be environmentally sustainable

3. Help children and young people thrive

4. Enable people to live healthier lives.

Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute over £600 million a year through 13,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4 billion of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £49 billion has been raised and more than 690,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district.

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