Our partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund
Increasing reach & impact through Reaching Communities England
Working in partnership with The National Lottery has always been part of our story – they’ve been one of our biggest supporters since the beginning of VIY. Back in our early days in 2012, they supported our national roll out across the country, alongside former brand partners, Wickes, on projects like Hall Green Boxing Club in Birmingham and The Pedro Club in East London.
Most recently, we’ve worked through The National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities programme. During our grant period (April 2021-March 2024), our Reaching Communities grant has specifically enabled us to:
- Deliver our projects to support NEET and at risk young people and local community spaces in the most deprived communities at greater scale across England
- Grow our national network of Trade Skills Mentors who support and work alongside our young learners on each project
- Allow more young people on VIY to achieve City & Guilds Entry Level construction skills accreditations
- Invest in supporting our learners to successfully progress beyond VIY to an employment and/or further/higher-level training outcome
- Ensure that the facility improvement/construction works we undertake on each project are as robust and impactful as the youth outputs and outcomes we achieve
- Building VIY’s delivery capacity and capabilities – the VIY Team, our resources and skills
As we look to continue and grow our partnership with The National Lottery in England and Wales into 2025 and beyond, see some highlights of our most recent grant programme below.
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*All data featured here relates to the grant period 2021-2024, unless otherwise stated..
How The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund has underpinned our growth in scale and reach
VIY’s impact on young people
- 76% have achieved an Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditation in Year 3 of this grant period (2023-24)
- 88% have reported improved wellbeing, and 86% are now more confident about getting a job in the future
- We’re supporting young people towards brighter futures, particularly in the construction industry, like Archie becoming a Drylining Apprentice in London and Honey (right) moving onto Level 1 Painting & Decorating in Norwich
“I have found that students who are very disengaged in college have thrived on the VIY projects where they are able to learn in a practical environment – and some have already pursued vocational
training in construction”Lucy Hughes, Employment Coach, Aspire Team (re-engagement programme), City College Norwich (referred over 150 young people to 19 VIY projects)
VIY’s impact on local spaces and places that matter to communities
- Our partnership working that The National Lottery has underpinned has helped achieve wider social impact across 254 community projects in areas such as sport, health and wellbeing, addressing social isolation and building ‘pride in place’ within local communities
- 85% venues renovated have seen an increase in users, like Middleton Boxing Club (featured left) and 93% have seen more diverse users, like Telford Hornets Rugby Club
- Young people are renovating spaces they use and benefit from including improving their own temporary accommodation whilst learning skills, like 5 projects we’ve delivered with and for The Amber Foundation
“Lots of people have promised to help us in the past and nothing has come of it. Watching both Zamir and Simon inspire the young people to better themselves in life is humbling to say the least. All of us at our club cannot thank you all enough for everything, this means the absolute world to me and all our kids – some of them have helped out which is great.”
Martyn Lynch, Head Coach, Middleton Amateur Boxing Club, Manchester, February 2022
Growing our national network of Trade Skills Mentors
- Hear from tradespeople like Kate and Dale who’ve progressed and grown as VIY Lead Trade Mentors – a big focus of our partnership through this grant
- Supporting brilliant young VIY learners like Kelsie & Liam and Daniel to become VIY Peer Mentors, developed by Lead Mentors like Dale (both pictured right)
- Developing our delivery resources and capacity by building our team, including growing our regionally-based delivery teams
“I like the fact we’re giving young people the opportunities to see there’s much more available out there than just the classroom.”
Kate, female tradesperson and Lead Mentor with VIY across the country.
The ripple effect of our long-term partnership with The National Lottery:
- Acting as a catalyst to unlock cross-sector partnerships with the likes of local authorities and councils, sports bodies and stakeholders, trade/construction companies, grant-givers and private sector brands
- Aligning our work with other national programmes and strategies including the Community Renewal Fund/UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Uniting The Movement with Sport England and tackling crime through Police & Crime Commissioner Funds
- All helping us to grow our national reach, scale, sustainability and impact to seven regional VIY hubs (and beyond!), whilst maintaining a regional, place-based approach and delivering local impact, co-designed with the communities in which we work
“VIY’s proactive approach to developing and delivering projects that make a demonstrable difference to young people, cricket clubs and the communities in which they are situated is invaluable in helping to highlight the success of the Inspiring Generations strategy as a whole.
The projects not only help breathe life back into the recreational cricket clubs they support but also ensure that local young people are invested in the club and help to provide an invaluable source of volunteer support for the clubs to tap into.”
Sandy Mitchell, Head of Heritage and Community Wellbeing, Lancashire Cricket Foundation