The National Lottery Community Fund is providing £2.4m of funding to 48 projects across the United Kingdom as part of its Leaders with Lived Experience programme.
The lottery funding will support organisations to better embed experts by experience in all aspects of operations including making it central to COVID-19 response, recovery and renewal.
It will also enable the fund and the wider sector to continue learning about how people with first-hand experience can become leaders, and how funders can support them. Projects funded span a range of themes and issues.
One of the projects to receive funding is Changing Tunes, a record label in Bristol specifically for ex-prisoners, encouraging them to break free from the stigma of their past and establish themselves in the music industry.
Another project is the Excel Women’s Association. Based in East London, the charity helps women to tackle entrenched issues and barriers in their community and empower them to feel strong and brave in the pursuit of their rights.
Lancashire based Red Rose Recovery is another project to receive lottery funding. It helps to provide structure and stability to the lives of local people struggling with addictions, so they can progress to senior leadership roles within the organisation and beyond.
Cassie Robinson, Senior Head of UK Portfolio at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players, people with lived experience will use their unique expertise to lead social change and help their communities to thrive. This is vital in the response to – and eventually the recovery from – COVID-19.
“We know that supporting those with the first-hand experience to become leaders is a key enabler for civil society to do more, help more people, and for the sector to continue to make a positive impact.”
The Lived Experience Leadership programme was developed using learning and insights from the 2019 pilot programme and is a key part of The National Lottery Community Fund’s commitment to enabling civil society to be fit for the future.
By summer 2020, the 20 projects funded as part of the pilot programme had created leadership opportunities for over 1,250 people with lived experience.
National Lottery players raise £30m a week for good causes. In 2020, the National Lottery Community Fund distributed over £650m to community projects across the UK.
Earlier this month, Blondel Cluff CBE was named as the next Chair of the National Lottery Community Fund, replacing interim chair Tony Burton CBE.