Over the last year, we have seen communities in Wales affected by the impact of the rising costs of living. The National Lottery Community Fund in Wales responded quickly and efficiently. We are being flexible with our funding, providing rapid support to help meet the increased costs and pressure on services offered by community groups, charities and organisations across Wales.
Our funding teams in Wales are working with existing grant holders to offer them grant uplifts; and our response includes offering cost of living grants through the People and Places medium strand – up to £100,000 for two-year funding.
We relaxed our National Lottery Awards for All programme rules to allow organisations to hold more than one grant at a time, up to £20,000 a year.
We have been giving grants to those working with the most vulnerable and we have seen an increase in applications to meet local need, for example:
• Food banks and provision of hot food (26% of our cost of living grants have been awarded to food themed projects).
• Help to pay rising energy costs in community centres offering warm spaces and requests to help make the centres more sustainable, keeping long-term energy costs down.
Since we made these changes, we have awarded £4.7 million to 135 new projects specifically for cost of living issues. We have also offered 78 existing grant holders more funding – amounting to £3.6 million – to ensure they could continue to deliver the work we originally funded them to do and adapt their services in line with their client’s needs.
John Rose, Wales Director at The National Lottery Community Fund, said, “Our grant holders told us they were struggling to meet the often-increasing demand for their services. We’re proud to be able to respond to this by giving them additional financial support, along with funding for new groups. National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK, and the cost of living grants show that we are committed to supporting communities across Wales to tackle some of the challenges they currently face.”
Projects offering outreach support, for example, faced higher travel costs which limited the amount of support on offer, and the cost of fuel deters volunteers from offering more of their time as it costs more to travel to the projects they support. For almost all grant holders, increased overheads, particularly in relation to their own energy bills, were highlighted as a significant cause of concern.
Many of our grant holders reported struggling as the donations of cash, food and products they rely on dried up, just at the time they needed more. Their own staff, buildings and vehicles suffered the impacts of escalating prices, alongside increasing demand for their services as more people struggled.
For example, the Islwyn Ministry Area Foodbank, based in the Rhymney Valley in South Wales, received a £23,000 grant to spend over a year. The grant is helping reduce the impact of the cost of living crisis for people in the area. The group is providing a warm hub offering hot refreshments, transport and support and guidance on how to maximise income.
Islwyn Ministry Area Foodbank
The Chair of Rhymney Valley Foodbank, Reverend Canon Mark Owen, said, “In recent months the Islwyn Ministry Area Foodbank has seen an escalating rise in individuals and families not being able to buy food, due to the disproportionate rise in the cost of household energy.
“With the National Lottery funding, we can build on our existing service and offer warm spaces to people living in some of the most deprived communities in Wales. The Trustees of the Ministry Area would like to acknowledge their sincere thanks. We look forward to providing meaningful opportunities for people facing challenges navigating their way around the cost of living crisis.”
Gellideg Foundation in Merthyr Tydfil was awarded a grant of £99,875 to alleviate cost of living pressures. The award was particularly welcome during the cold weather in November/December 2022, enabling the group to provide an open access, warm hub and to extend their pantry scheme. In this video, our Wales Committee Chair, Simone Lowthe-Thomas, spoke to the project to find out more about how they used the cost of living grant.
Helen Buhaenko, Manager at Gellideg Foundation Centre, explained: “Everyone is finding that their income is not meeting their expenditure and they are having to find ways to cut spending. We have opened a room every day for people to come in. It’s a warm, welcoming space with free tea, coffee and wifi. We currently have 80 households as members of our Pantry. The National Lottery grant let us invite the waiting list of a further 56 households.”
Groups can continue to apply to The National Lottery Community Fund here in Wales for grants relating to the impacts of rising cost of living. We are now accepting, and will continue to accept, applications to our grant programmes.
Find out more here:
The National Lottery Community Fund Blog 