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.

*All data featured here relates to the grant period 2021-2024, unless otherwise stated..

254
projects delivered
since April 2021
3,448
young people taking part
learning skills & boosting their employability
39%
NEET young people aged 16+
progressing into an EET outcome within 12 months*
700 adults
volunteering with VIY
as Mentors and Community Volunteers

How The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund has underpinned our growth in scale and reach

“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)

“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

“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.

“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

Just some of the partners unlocked along the way thanks to the long-term commitment from The National Lottery Community Fund

Lanchashire Cricket logo
Nottingham City Council logo
Toolstation logo