United Welsh Lottery Fund Award

United Welsh Housing Association Limited in partnership with Charter Housing, Tai Calon, Monmouthshire Housing Association, Newport City Homes and Linc Cymru will work with 225 families affected by in-work poverty in Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Monmouthshire to improve their wellbeing, resilience, skills and prospects. The £500,000 grant, over three years, will fund a team leader and two area co-ordinators, freelance and partner costs, recruitment, training, travel, volunteer expenses, monitoring, evaluation, translation, marketing, activities, IT equipment and overhead costs.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Briefing on Poverty in Wales 2018 noted that more people were in work, but that the risk of poverty has risen for working households.

The report adds “Poverty is highest among families with children”.  Its report “Prosperity without Poverty: a framework for action in Wales” includes the following statement: “The level of Poverty in the UK is shameful. This should be a place where everyone can live a decent, secure life. Instead 13 million people – half of whom are in a working family – are living without enough to meet their needs.” (Julia Unwin CBE, former Chief Executive Joseph Rowntree Foundation).

A full list of the other successful bids is available above.  Grants are made possible thanks to people who play the National Lottery.

Bethan Jones, Business Development Officer for United Welsh said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded a grant from Big Lottery Fund.  As a group of social landlords, we’re seeing increasing numbers of working families struggling to cope. Our project called “Gweithio i’r teulu / Working for the family”, will bring together working families across Gwent to talk about what matters to them, what they’re struggling with and eventually work together to create some initiatives to make things better.  The places we’ll be covering are: Caerphilly Borough – Hengoed, Blackwood, Risca; Newport; Blaenau Gwent – Nantyglo, Hilltop, Sirhowy and Cefn Golau and Monmouthshire – Caldicot, Chepstow, Abergavenny.

“United Welsh is leading the project and our consortium partners are Charter Housing, Monmouthshire Housing Association, Newport City Homes, Tai Calon and Linc Cymru.  Our next step will be putting together the project team, ready to get out into our local communities. This is a great opportunity to make a real difference.”

Andrew Brown, Funding Manager for the Big Lottery Fund said: “We want to show that we are serious about putting people in the lead and funding development work involving the people who will benefit from the project is a big step in that direction. We want organisations to make the leap and really listen to what the families want and need.  We are looking forward to finding out what the United Welsh and their partners will do with the grant.”