Local projects lead the way in the community

Tuesday 28th April 2020 at 9am 0 Comments

Image: Ulster Orchestra

Enterprising projects and selfless individuals throughout the North have been carrying out amazing acts for their community.

These include assisting in food deliveries to the most vulnerable; organising online activities and, in some cases, returning to the health service to help in the frontline.

Streetwise Community Circus has created a digital hub called Streetwise at Home, where children can learn circus skills from professional performers. While the Ulster Orchestra’s new digital platform, #UOLetsPlayAtHome, features videos of their players and staff performing and chatting individually or as small ensembles every mid-week day at 3pm on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

National Lottery funded Every Body Active coaches from local authorities across Northern Ireland have also moved online with to offer safe sport and physical activity skills at home. Olympic rowing hopeful Philip Doyle, a qualified doctor, has put his Tokyo preparations on hold to return to medicine and join the battle against Covid-19.

The team at Monkstown Boxing Club has turned its gym and facilities into a temporary soup kitchen and volunteers are delivering food packages to the doorsteps of people in their area who are self-isolating.

And for those missing Northern Ireland’s spectacular natural beauty and landscapes, the National Trust is offering virtual tours from the comfort of your own home of the rugged scenery around the Giant’s Causeway, where the National Lottery helped fund a world-class visitor centre.

Thanks to National Lottery players, up to £600 million of National Lottery funding will be reallocated over the coming months to help projects in the UK offset the impact of coronavirus and support the most vulnerable in our communities.

Paul Mullan, chair of The National Lottery Forum Northern Ireland, said:

“The National Lottery is playing a critical role in supporting people, projects and communities during these challenging times.

“We have always backed projects and people who help communities thrive and we are now focussing support to mitigate the unprecedented pressure they are feeling as we rally to overcome Covid-19.

“By playing The National Lottery, you are making an amazing contribution to supporting these organisations and individuals and you are playing an important role in the nationwide-response to combatting the impact of Covid-19 in your local community.”

Each week, £30 million is raised by National Lottery players for good causes. To find out more about the range of funding support announced by National Lottery distributors to date, please visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/coronavirus-pandemic-response. Please check the websites of individual distributors for full terms and conditions.