Thirty-six voluntary organisations have celebrated being awarded a total of £92,828 by The Local Fund for the Harrogate district.
The fund awards grants of between £200 and £3,000 each year to small organisations with charitable aims in the Harrogate district where a small amount of money can make a significant difference.
It is funded by The Local Lotto, with support from North Yorkshire Council, Harrogate and District Community Action and the Harry Bolland Trust Fund. Two Ridings Community Foundation, which coordinates local giving in North and East Yorkshire, administers the fund.
Two Ridings organised Monday night’s celebration at West Park Hotel in Harrogate, which recognised volunteers from the organisations awarded grants.
They provide services ranging from providing lunches for the homeless, tackling domestic abuse and enabling people in Nidderdale to run safely to improve their wellbeing.
North Yorkshire high sheriff Clare Granger, who joined local councillors at the event, said the successful applicants provided ‘literally a lifeline’ for many people in North Yorkshire.
Celia McKeon, chief executive at Two Ridings, said the fund supported groups with basic running costs, to ensure they can keep their doors open.
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Here is a list of the successful applicants, how much each one received and for what purpose.
| Community Group | Amount Awarded | Project Description |
| Artizan | 2688 | Funding towards staff, craft supplies and refreshments for craft and socialising opportunities for children and teens with Special Educational Needs, alongside support for their parents. |
| Badapple Theatre Company | 1580 | Funding towards staff, hall hire, DBS checks and training to run youth session in the rural area of the Ure Valley, and to enable them to earn a recognised award. |
| Bilton dragon bowling club | 1000 | Funding towards sprinkler system to make water use more efficient and to support club members with maintenance. |
| Boroughbridge and District Community Care | 3000 | Funding towards staff and room hire to train befriending volunteers for people experiencing bereavement, or living with dementia or disabilities, for recently recruited, existing and to-be recruited volunteers. |
| Claro Enterprises | 3000 | Funding towards staff, insurance and utilities to run community workshop to support people with mental health difficulties to improve their health and wellbeing. |
| Dales and Bowland CIC | 3000 | Funding towards running rural bus service on Sundays and Bank Holidays. |
| Dancing for Well Being | 1200 | Funding towards operational costs, including a Dance Movement Therapist, for a trial series of sessions to support those who care for family members with dementia, to support carer’s own needs. |
| Darley Playing Field Association (DPFA) | 3000 | Funding towards outdoor play equipment for children in rurally isolated village. |
| Harlow Hill Community Centre Association | 2000 | Funding towards new doors to improve the carbon footprint and look of community building. |
| Harrogate & District Community Action | 3000 | Funding towards staff and room hire to support befriending and signposting services for older members of the community, particularly the weekly club and where some clients have more complex needs. |
| Harrogate Hospital Radio | 1170 | Funding for radios to lend to lonely in-patients in the Harrogate area hospitals. |
| Inspire Youth Yorkshire | 3000 | Funding for staff and overheads towards free weekly youth activities. |
| Jenny Ruth Workshops Limited | 3000 | Funding for staff and travel costs to offer workers with learning disabilities outreach opportunities, including sales at local shows, visits to stockists and delivering talks to other local groups. |
| Jenny Ruth Workshops Limited | 1500 | Funding towards Jennryruth branded t-shirts and fleeces to provide new workers with learning disabilities pride in their work, and being able to represent the organisation at events. |
| Kairos Network Church | 1000 | Funding for a second-hand trailer and new security locks, for taking unusual bicycles to events to encourage confidence in cycling, ensuring the organisation no longer has to borrow a trailer. |
| Knaresborough Museum Association | 1500 | Funding towards travel, overheads, and display stands to take displays to sheltered accommodation and residential homes to engage those who would not otherwise be able to visit the museum. |
| Knot Another Choir CIO | 3000 | Funding towards staging for local inclusive community choir, which will also raise income for the group by being hired out to other community groups. |
| Lifeline Harrogate | 2400 | Funding for fruit and veg boxes (subsidised by the provider) to provide a healthy equivalent to crisis loans for food, to people who have recently experienced homelessness and are now accommodated in supported housing. |
| Lifeline Harrogate | 2600 | Funding for food and room hire for fortnightly lunch club, to support current and former residents of supported accommodation. |
| Living Potential Care Farming | 1740 | Funding for tools, raised beds, compost and seeds to start therapeutic sessions in the walled garden for people living with mental health difficulties. |
| Low Harrogate Crown Green Bowling Club | 2250 | Funding to buy bowls and equipment which will make the club more inclusive and to review the irrigation system. |
| Masham Community Office | 3000 | Funding towards purchasing the organisation’s premises to secure it as a community asset. |
| New Beginnings Peer Support | 2690 | Funding for staff, volunteers, materials etc for workshops looking at self, worth, boundaries and resilience, to increase the health and wellbeing of families, especially children. |
| Nidderdale Fell & Trail | 3000 | Funding for training for volunteers to become qualified in leadership and coaching in running, to allow the organisation to expand and offer more running sessions. |
| Nidderdale Plus Partnership | 3000 | Funding for three months of Digital Champion Coordinator time to continue to run project to support older people to be safe and confident online, and to stay connected. |
| Open Country | 3000 | Funding for staff, volunteer costs, and operational costs towards running an allotment and tree nursery to offer skills development, mental health benefits and social activities for people with disabilities. |
| Open Country | 2450 | Funding for staff, volunteers, accessible minibus, and allotment rent to ensure members can access mixed gardening and outdoor activities for those with disabilities or with poor mental health. |
| Pateley Bridge & BewerleyMemorial Hall | 1000 | Funding towards extending a local social event by opening for longer, and to offer hot food for the first time as part of the group becoming a warm space, for older people in a rurally isolated area. |
| Pinewoods Conservation Group | 2410 | Funding towards tools and PPE to create a new volunteer group to care for the woodland and to support volunteer’s health and wellbeing. |
| Reflect | 2800 | Funding for staff, volunteer costs and overheads to publicise support and to increase face to face sessions for people experiencing pregnancy and baby loss, and for those seeking post-termination support. |
| Ripon City Festival Trust 1986 | 1800 | Funding to support teenagers to engage more with their local community and to address self-care and mental health, by experiencing live theatre themed around wellbeing, taking part in drama workshops and volunteering to encourage other young people to take part in the Festival. |
| Ripon Disability Forum | 2940 | Funding to set up a website, particularly to create an interactive route mapping tool, that people with disabilities can design their own travel routes into and around Ripon and the surrounding area. |
| Samaritans of Harrogate and District | 3000 | Funding towards volunteer expenses, operational costs and overheads for organisation seeking to reduce the number of people dying by suicide. |
| Supporting Older People CIO | 2940 | Funding for staff, DBS checks are publicity to recruit and train befriender volunteers to support older people, and to start a new social group for older residents. |
| Taking Baby Steps CIC | 2530 | Funding for staff, travel expenses and sundries to be able to run community drop in groups as a pilot in rural areas, for parents facing pregnancy loss, baby loss, or peri- and post- natal mental health problems in more rural areas of the Harrogate district. |
| The Trauma Centre Community Interest Company | 3000 | Funding towards staff to support the running of heavily subsidised self-help evening classes for people with mental health difficulties, which would help reduce the need for more intensive therapy. |
| The Wellness Gateway CIC | 3000 | Funding towards staffing, to set up trial Wellness Hub to offer mental health support and signposting in Ripon and surrounding areas. |
| Village Voices Killinghall | 640 | Funding for keyboard and accessories to be able to keep rurally isolated village choir running for years to come. |
| Wellspring Therapy & Training | 3000 | Funding towards volunteer travel expenses, to be able to offer more counselling sessions and reduce waiting times for people to support people with poor mental health, experiencing family problems and more. |
Local Lotto marks £200,000 raised for good causes in Harrogate district
More than £200,000 has been raised for good causes across the Harrogate district thanks to a community lottery scheme.
The Local Lotto, run by Harrogate Borough Council, has passed the milestone this month after being established in 2018 as a way for groups to raise more funds.
For each £1 ticket bought, 60p goes to local charities, voluntary organisations and community groups. Meanwhile, players have the chance to win a £25,000 jackpot as well as smaller cash prizes each week.
Karen Weaver, strategic lead at Harrogate and District Community Action, said:
“The Local Lotto has been such a great success in supporting good causes across the Harrogate district, providing a regular monthly income and an easy way for local people to support local community action.
“There is also a vital and fruitful link with the Local Fund, with 10p from every ticket sale being donated directly and helping to ensure that it exists in perpetuity to provide grants to grass roots volunteers, community groups and charities.”
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A total of 112 groups have signed up to be part of the Local Lotto to generate additional funding.
Beneficiaries include Autism Angels, Woodfield Millennium Green, Horticap, the Harrogate branch of Parkinson’s UK, Harrogate Dramatic Society, Nidderdale and Pateley Bridge Men’s Shed, and other groups including Scouts, churches, sports clubs and more.
Cllr Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council and voluntary and community sector chair, said:
Harrogate lottery a ‘lifeline’ for charities during covid“It’s an incredible achievement to raise more than £200,000 in less than four years for our voluntary and community sector across the Harrogate district, through the Local Lotto.
“These vital funds can sometimes be a lifeline for smaller community groups and I’d like to thank everyone for getting involved and signing up to play the Local Lotto.
“It’s never too late to take part, whether as an organisations or a participant, and I’d urge anyone to sign up online.”
Yorkshire’s only council-run lottery has been described as a “lifeline” for charities during the pandemic after thousands of pounds was raised for good causes in the Harrogate district.
Harrogate Borough Council launched the Local Lotto in 2018 despite some concerns over encouraging gambling and it has since raised more than £161,000 through the sale of £1 tickets with funds from each going to the buyer’s choice of charity.
This includes £56,000 raised over the past year when many charities have struggled to survive due to donations drying up during covid.
Ann Duncan, partnership and engagement manager at the council, told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the lottery had been a “lifeline” during this time. She said:
“The supporters of the Local Lotto have remained strong and this has been really important for those good causes because traditional fundraising methods have been limited.
“The Local Lotto provides unrestricted funding so there are no stipulations as to what the charities can spend the money on.
“They can spend it on their electricity or insurance, it’s up to them, so for some of the good causes it has been a real lifeline when funds have been quite desperate over the last 18 months.”
£25,000 jackpot
The council takes no income from the £1 ticket sales with 60p from each going to the buyer’s choice of charity, 20p into the prize fund, 17p to an external lottery manager and 3p to cover VAT.
Funds raised are paid to signed-up charities selling tickets and around £19,400 has been handed out in winnings over the past year.
Some buyers have won up to £2,000, although the top prize of £25,000 has yet to be claimed.
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The Local Lotto is also linked to the council’s Local Fund – a pot of cash which charities can apply for grants from.
Councillor Stanley Lumley, a Conservative who represents the Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale Moors ward, described the council’s decision to launch the lottery as “controversial” but said it had proved to be a “great success”. He said:
Local Fund for the Harrogate District awards £85,000 to 29 community groups“We took a gamble, if you’d pardon the pun, three years ago when we introduced this. It was controversial and people were sceptical whether it would work.
“It clearly has worked and worked extremely well.
“The beauty of this lottery is that a person buying the ticket decides where they want a portion of the money to go.
“My ticket money goes to something close to my heart – Nidderdale Plus at Pateley Bridge which is a really good community hub that needs support.”
Representatives of about 30 voluntary organisations joined councillors and civic dignitaries this week to celebrate the Local Fund for the Harrogate District, which awarded £85,000 to 29 community groups this year.
The fund, which will be issuing more grants in the new year, awards up to £3,000 to small voluntary organisations that have a positive impact on the wellbeing of people in the Harrogate district.
It helped Resurrected Bites launch a community grocery store for low income people and enabled Wellspring Therapy and Training to offer reduced costs on counselling.
Other successful applicants this year included Harrogate Clothes Bank, Artizan International, the Wesley Centre, Masham Town Hall Community Charity, Harrogate Bowling Club, Chain Lane Community Centre and Harrogate & Knaresborough Toy Library, Nidderdale & Pateley Bridge Men’s Shed and Boroughbridge and District Community Care.
The fund is a three-way partnership between Harrogate Borough Council, Harrogate & District Community Action and Two Ridings Community Foundation.
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At least 60% from each ticket sold on the Local Lotto, which has a weekly £25,000 jackpot, goes towards the fund.
Harrogate Borough Council has made a £200,000 endowment donation, which will help the fund provide sustainable long-term funding.
This week’s celebratory event at West Park Hotel.
Jan Garrill , chief executive of Two Ridings Community Foundation, told the gathering at Harrogate’s West Park Hotel that it would match fund any donations to the Local Fund by individuals or businesses.
Karen Weaver, strategic lead at HADCA, which supports charities in the district, said:
“The Local Fund is all about addressing the hidden needs in our district, like loneliness and mental health.
“It’s so important that there is a dependable fund for small groups that make such a massive impact in the district.”
Further details of the fund are available here.
