Local youth charity receives over £300,000 from National Lottery Community Fund

Young people from the Bemerton Heath estate are celebrating after the local youth charity Rise:61 secured a grant of £323,678 from The National Lottery Community Fund.

Rise:61 say they will use the funding to help sustain and develop their youth hubs project over the next five years. These include Rise:61’s Bike Hub which has been running since 2017, and the Creative Hub and Active Hub which were launched in 2021.

The new National Lottery funding will enable the charity to keep providing at least three free after-school clubs to 45 young people on the estate per week. Here, local young people get the chance to use specialist equipment and tools to develop their passions and interests.

Andy Malcolm, a trustee of Rise:61 said, “This grant funding means our 3 amazing hub managers can continue to do the incredible work they do on the estate. Not only do they provide free after-school clubs and mentor young people, they also help them turn their ideas, on how to improve the community for everyone, into a reality.

“The National Lottery Community Fund are great partners for us as we both believe the key to transformation will come from empowering those within the community and have committed to help us fund that work for the next five years.”

Rise:61 will continue to fundraise to further expand the work of the project.

You can donate to the Rise:61 project here.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week across the UK for good causes. The National Lottery Community Fund as a distributor ensures a share of this funding goes straight to communities, helping them to tackle important issues such as supporting young people into employment, mental health and climate action.

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