3 February 2000

More than a billion ways to mark the millennium

The National Lottery Charities Board today (Feb 3) announced £37,637,000 worth of awards to 298 groups in England. The grants take the total awarded to charities and community groups in England to more than £1 billion.

The Charities Board is also making applying for a grant even more straightforward - through its improved website, which has received a fivefold increase in ‘hits’ in the last month.

Charities Board Director for England Janet Paraskeva said: "In just five short years the Lottery has become a vital source of funding for many organisations - from the smallest community groups to the largest national charities.

"We want to be accessible to all parts of the community. Groups can apply online through our new website - www.nlcb.org.uk - and we are hoping to have electronic application forms available on disk in the very near future.

"The Charities Board is proud to have awarded £1 billion to 16,421 projects in England since 1995. We will continue to work in partnership with voluntary groups to improve the quality of life in disadvantaged communities."

The new Charities Board website:www.nlcb.org.uk

The site is easy to use - with maximum accessibility to those with older browsers and people using special screen reader software, Braille displays and magnifiers. It is available with and without graphics, and has a searchable database of awards and press announcements.

Each country and regional office has its own page, giving information on:

1. News - including a diary of events, news items, office changes, staff changes, local recruitment etc.
2. Focus - case studies, strategic plans, informative documents etc.
3. Contacts - where we are and who we are
4. Links - to local community groups, helper organisations, and other sites of interest

Groups celebrating today include:

LASA - Based London, awarded £443,570.

For more information visit LASA’s website at www.rightsnet.org.uk

T P A S - Based Salford, awarded £99,901

TPAS are an advisory and training service for tenant participation between social housing landlords and tenants. The project is to establish an interactive web site providing a library and publications database and an electronic bulletin board and discussion group. This will improve access to information and support the networking of groups.

For more information visit the TPAS website at www.tpas.org.uk

All enquiries:

Martin Valentine,England Media Manager: 0116 258 7023

Notes to editors:

1. The awards being announced today have been made under the Charities Board’s Community involvement and Poverty and Disadvantage programmes.
2. To date the Charities Board has supported 16,421 projects by voluntary and community groups in England, through awards totalling £1,028,382,804.

Awards today by region and for England-wide projects: