Big Lottery Fund. Reaching Out: Supporting Families

Big Lottery Fund are investing £25 million in projects lasting five years to help families in Northern Ireland to improve their children’s lives.

BIG’s mission is to support people and communities most in need so we expect the projects we fund to help families facing challenges such as separation, absence of a key family member, poverty, substance abuse, disability, social isolation, homelessness, physical and/or emotional abuse.

Research has shown that early childhood has a strong influence on well-being and achievement during the rest of a child’s life and into adulthood. For this pogramme, we are defining childhood as pre-birth up to the age of 12.

Support for children during their childhood is more likely to be effective if parents and the wider family are involved. By families we mean children and their parents or carers, as well as wider family members, such as grandparents and siblings.

Our funding will support a wide range of activities such as getting parents more involved in their children’s learning, reducing family isolation from the wider community, and strengthening family relationships and communication.

To be successful it’s important that the projects we fund understand and complement the range of relevant strategies and activities in Northern Ireland. These include:

  • Families Matter
  • The Child Poverty Strategy
  • Care Matters NI
  • Our Children and Young People – Our Pledge United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Read more: biglotteryfund.org.uk