BVSNW Award for work with Ex-offenders

Thanks to the Big Lottery Fund, this month BVSNW has been awarded £243,884.

The aim of the BME Offender Re-engagement Project is to support BME offenders to re-engage with the communities around them, learn basic skills and find purposeful activity to reduce reoffending rates. The project is particularly targeted at offenders that have served short sentences and who therefore do not qualify for support from probation and other services. 

The Big Lottery Fund is the largest distributor of Lottery money to good causes. The fund (BIG) is responsible for delivering 40 per cent of all funds raised for good causes (about 13 pence of every pound spent on a Lottery Ticket) by the National Lottery. Since June 2004, BIG has awarded over £4.4bn to great projects supporting health, education, environment and charitable purposes. Most of the funding is awarded to voluntary and community sector organisations.

The grant will enable BVSNW to employ two development workers for 3 years. Dr Minkesh Sood, Chair of BVSNW, said:

"This is an important project that aims to address the problems of crime for the benefit of the whole community. By addressing some of the causes of crime we reduce the impact of crime on victims. We are particularly pleased to have received the support of the Big Lottery Fund, which will allow us to deliver a sustained piece of work over 3 years."

We hope that you agree that this is good news for the Black voluntary sector. If you would like to keep up-to-date with other news in the sector, follow @BVSNW on Twitter or subscribe to the BVSNW’s electronic newsletter by clicking on the following link bvsnw.wordpress.com/stay-updated

Taken from BVSNW's press release.