In this guest blog, OPAAL’s Kath Parson introduces just one of the group’s success stories and explains why the Advocacy on the Wards project is so important.

Kath Parson, OPAAL Chief Executive

Cancer. The Big C. A death sentence? It’s scary and a diagnosis can be instantly shattering.

Did you know that one in four people diagnosed with cancer in the UK will lack support from family and friends during their treatment and recovery? That represents more than 70,000 people each year.

More than half (53%) of healthcare professionals say patients have decided to skip treatment altogether because they have no support from family or friends while almost three-fifths (58%) of those who lack support during their treatment and recovery say it’s because their family and friends are too busy or live too far away.

These are just some of the headline statistics from a new report by Macmillan Cancer Support (PDF). It adds to a growing evidence base demonstrating the serious and detrimental impact of loneliness and isolation on our mental and physical health.

Advocacy cancer support services can help by working to help patients avoid loneliness. They can ultimately make a positive impact on older people’s mental and physical health and reduce the need for some primary health care services.

Richard Rogers is a cancer survivor who has had the illness three times over the last ten years. Despite this, he is now using his own experiences to support people who have been newly diagnosed.

Richard, who lives in Blandford, Dorset, says his priority is simply to listen and be led by the needs of his advocacy partner, something he has learned from the special training he received from OPAAL.

He discovered he had lung cancer after a routine x-ray following a car accident. “I was given a 50/50 chance of survival, but it was caught very early,” he explains. “Since then, I’ve had bladder and skin cancer, but I have put my trust in the doctors that everything will turn out OK.”

Richard has given valuable support to an elderly man recently diagnosed with lung cancer. “His family have told me that I did him the power of good,” he says. “He was very down and he thought his number was up.

“He’d been in hospital for about five weeks but he’d had the same operation as me and I look the picture of health – I think that gave him hope. He began to realise that it wasn’t all over and that he could get through it.”

Richard believes “Advocacy work is very rewarding, helping someone else gives you a real lift.”

You can find out more about the Advocacy on the Wards project on our OPAAL blog.

Kath Parson is Chief Executive of the Older People’s Advocacy Alliance and project manager of the Silver Dreams funded Advocacy on the Wards project.

What do you think of Kath’s guest blog? Are you working on a BIG-funded project reaching out to those affected by cancer? Leave your comments below or join the conversation on Twitter using #biglf.

Big Lottery Fund (BIG) Chief Executive, Peter Wanless, explains why the UK must close the digital divide by building the basic online skills of people and organisations so they can take full advantage of the benefits the Internet has to offer.

BIG is today announcing an investment of up to £15 million to help, and in this blog Peter urges other organisations to connect people to online services that will improve their quality of life.

Most people think of the UK as digitally well connected. However, more than 16 million adults in the UK don’t have the basic online skills to benefit fully from the internet, and around 7.4 million have never used a computer or the Internet.

This means that some of the most vulnerable people in society are missing out on:

• Easy ways to find out about local events, meet new people and keep in contact with friends and relatives;
• Get the best prices for goods and services and find important information fast;
• Be as job-ready as they might be. Recent research by the Prince’s Trust (PDF) found that a significant proportion of young people looking for work lacked the digital capability to apply with confidence.

Leave this unchecked and the digital divide will only get wider. It’s an issue that a funder with a mission to support communities and people most in need cannot afford to ignore.

That’s why the Big Lottery Fund is a founder member of Go On UK and why we are demonstrating our commitment to addressing this matter by announcing that we will make up to £15 million available to those who can convincingly demonstrate how they will connect those who currently remain disconnected from  online services that will improve their quality of life.

Around 7.4m people in the UK have never used a computer or the internet

We expect the programme to be open for applications in the autumn. In the meantime we’re asking people to start thinking now about the partnerships they can establish that will convincingly inspire people across the UK to get online.

Our plan is only to make a very small number of transformational grants. Competition will be intense so consider how best you can draw on the skills, reach and influence of others.

We are at a turning point with digital technology when the actions we take now can define how society looks in the future.

Connecting everyone to online services in ways they will see as helpful and relevant will equip an entire nation with the chance to access a world that could otherwise remain closed in ways that will compound the disadvantage already felt by those most in need.

I look forward to other organisations pledging their support to the Go On UK cause and demonstrating how they can help connect the whole of the UK up to a future online.

Big Lottery Fund statement in response to The Guardian article: ‘Gay activists call for review of National Lottery grants’

The Big Lottery Fund supports over 12,000 projects a year and will fund religious groups to carry out specific activities that deliver social outcomes evidenced by need. All activities funded by us must be as accessible and inclusive as possible.

We will not fund activities that are specifically religious or proselytising in nature or that are contrary to our own equalities policy. Our mission is to help communities and individuals most in need and it is our experience that many religious groups can have unique access to some of those that are hardest to reach.

We take seriously the assessment of applicants and monitoring of our grants but at the same time we need to do this proportionately, based on the size of grant. This is to ensure that funding is accessible to all, not over burdensome for those, often small groups, applying, whilst at the same time keeping the overheads of awarding grants down.

As well as monitoring grants throughout their term, we thoroughly investigate all allegations of funding being misused or breaches of our terms and conditions and take appropriate and necessary action to ensure the proper use of funds.

So you’re delivering an intervention you know works, and you’re ready to replicate it. How do you go about doing it?

Kerstin Junge, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

It’s important to acknowledge that replication means dealing with a lot of issues that you cannot know in advance or completely plan for.  What are relevant local services, and how will you work with them?

How much will you need to change your intervention to meet new or different needs, and how much can you without affecting its effectiveness?  How will replication affect your organisational processes and ways of working?

However much you think, plan and make use of the support available to you, definite answers to questions like these will only emerge through ‘doing’. Learning from experience is therefore a key aspect of successful replication.

Thinking of replication as a process of continuous improvement can help you achieve your replication objectives

A good way to think about replication is in terms of continuous improvement: progressing iteratively, collecting data as you go along and using this to review successes (or difficulties) in order to adjust replication strategies.

Projects funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Realising Ambition programme replicate in ‘waves’. They may start to replicate in a geographic area they know or have relationships in.  This helps projects learn how to run the intervention elsewhere and also whether organisational ways of working need to be adjusted before replicating in less familiar territory.

They also have to really engage with the evidence base on their intervention to construct tight logic models.  This has helped some develop a much deeper understanding of their intervention, how to best deliver it and of the importance of maintaining fidelity. Beneficiaries reached and outcomes achieved are continuously monitored, and this data is available to projects to learn from and act upon.

Discussions with other projects and participation in webinars or programme events triggers insights that are fed back into the replication venture.

How can you implement your replication project in a continuous improvement spirit?

Even if you’re not part of a programme like Realising Ambition, thinking of your replication project in continuous improvement terms can help you increase your chance of success.  It gives you a practical framework to guide your replication activities, hence reducing the ‘unknowns’ you will be facing in this process.

But thinking of replication as continuous improvement means committing yourself to systematic collection of monitoring and evaluation data from the very beginning. It also means the team, project manager and senior executive involved in replication making the conscious decision – and having the ‘freedom’ – to use this data constructively, in a spirit of reflection and learning.

This means learning is not about being fearful of possible ‘bad’ results, but being open to understanding the reasons behind them and addressing these factors as part of the ongoing replication process.  This is not easy.  But in learning to work this way you are likely to be rewarded with better replication results.

Combining a replication approach with the monitoring and evaluation (Plan/Do/Study/Act) cycle

Kerstin Junge is a Principal Researcher and Consultant at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.

What do you think of Kerstin’s guest blog? Join the discussion on Twitter using #BIGreplication or leave your comment below.

The ‘Getting to Grips with Replication’ seminar series has now finished. All the presentations and other material can be found on our website. If you have any questions please email peter.bailey@biglotteryfund.org.uk

The Big Lunch aims to get communities together for a few hours of friendship and fun on the first Sunday in June each year. Since starting in 2009, and with support from the Big Lottery Fund, thousands of Big Lunches have taken place in communities right across the UK.

In this guest blog, the Big Lunch’s Charlotte Johnstone reflects upon two recent events which have focused thoughts on the meaning of ‘community’ and celebrated the inspiring individuals who’ve brought local people closer together.

In a recent debate at the Royal Society of Arts, with a panel that included Linda Quinn, Director of Communications and Marketing at The Big Lottery Fund, we took the opportunity to ask the thought-provoking question; ‘Where does the responsibility for community lie?’

Big Lunch Patron, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall welcomed award-winners to Clarence House

The debate was chaired by broadcaster and presenter Fi Glover, with contributions from Tim Smit, CEO of The Eden Project, and Jonathan Carr West, Chief Executive of the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU).

‘Feeding the Community Spirit’, the report just released by LGiU about the social impact The Big Lunch has on communities, was the topic of discussion and it sparked a lively debate about the responsibility for community. You can get a copy of Jonathan Carr West’s report by emailing fay.richards@thebiglunch.com.

The Big Lunch was last week also proud to hold The Big Lunch Community Awards at Clarence House. These were presented by The Big Lunch founder Tim Smit KBE and Big Lunch Patron, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall.

The awards were launched to recognise the positive and lasting impact made by The Big Lunch initiative in communities throughout the UK. It was our opportunity to give something back and show recognition of the community action taking place in villages, towns and cities across the UK.

35 nominees were shortlisted and a panel of judges including long standing Big Lunch Ambassador Barbara Windsor selected the 5 winners. These represented all four corners of the UK and the judges said it was hard to make a decision as the shortlisted entries were so inspiring.

In alphabetical order the winners were: Martin Sawers and Silvio Solorzano from Atley Court, Northamptonshire, Paul Kerrigan and Conor McCarry from Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, Emma Knight and Joel Al-Hattab from Ethel Street, South Wales, Dr Srihari Vallabhajousula and Mhairi Schmidt from the South Indian Cultural Centre in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, and Jess Phillips and her son Harry from Westfield Road, Birmingham.

Jess Phillips and her seven year old son Harry represented the residents of Westfield Road, Birmingham, and were chosen for an award for using The Big Lunch to strengthen community relations after their street fell victim to a series of arson attacks resulting in residents wanting to leave the area. They were invited to share their story on ITV’s This Morning on Wednesday 29 April alongside Barbara Windsor. You can also hear more from young Harry in the above video. Enjoy!

To get started for your Big Lunch on Sunday 2 June, just sign up for your free pack.

Charlotte Johnstone is a Big Lunch Support Officer

In this guest blog, Fair Share Trust’s Bia Carneiro reflects on the personal and collective journeys of people and groups she has met at end-of-programme celebrations. Find out more about the funding programme by visiting www.fairsharetrust.org.

Malcolm and Janet Shaw from the FST-funded Thomas Street Bowling Club proudly display their Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

As Fair Share Trust draws to a close, communities across England and Wales are taking the opportunity to celebrate the achievements and the difference they have made with 10 years of support from Fair Share Trust and a slice of £50m Lottery funding.

The events are bringing together people and groups that have been involved with Fair Share Trust over the course of the programme to recognise successes and to think about ways to carry on making their communities better places to live.

At the events I’ve attended, the commitment of local panels – made up of local residents and stakeholders – to ensure funding decisions addressed local wishes was evident.

“Fair Share Trust empowered me to shout even louder about my concerns in the community”, Miriam Kikis, a member of the Great Yarmouth Local Panel, told me. For Philip Marsh, chair of the Ashfield Local Panel, it was a learning process: “There were tough times, but we worked together on how to spend the money to make a difference.”

Something else I saw everywhere was a confidence boost through community action. In Bournemouth, Dianne Humphries told me: “If you saw me a few years ago, I wasn’t the same person, always walking with my head down. Now I’m going and inspiring people.” This was hard to believe when I’d just seen her speak to over 100 people about establishing a community enterprise centre.

Clearly, a major success of Fair Share Trust has been the life changing journeys of people like Dianne, who had no idea of what they were capable of, but have now become role models for their communities.

Young people from the FST-funded Star Youth Project and the Mayor of Dudley, Melvyn Motram

These passionate individuals are keen to continue driving change, so looking at the future was a central aspect of most celebrations.

For example, in Ellesmere Port & Neston, local and national funders were invited to network with Fair Share Trust-funded groups; in North Somerset and Hull, guests took part in planning workshops to discuss alternatives; and in Wales, local panels from the five areas came together to exchange learning.

Reflecting on the end of the programme, Nigel Mills, the Chief Executive of Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation, summarised it perfectly: “It would be disingenuous to say this is the ‘end of a journey’, it would mean the job is done. That’s not the case here as the organisations funded are not closing their doors.”

Sometimes, sitting at our office in London can make the communities seem like a distant reality from day-to-day grantmaking, so for me, attending these celebrations was an inspiration. To see on the ground the difference Fair Share has made to these areas and to meet the very people who made it all possible was a welcome reminder of why I believe in community-led change.

Visit the Fair Share Trust blog to read more stories and learning from local areas.

Bia Carneiro is the Research & Learning Analyst for Fair Share Trust at UK Community Foundations. 

My granny had Parkinson’s years ago before the medical advances there are today and I loved her dearly. So, in 1997 when my mum suggested I help out as a volunteer bus escort with PSHG (following my kids going off to school) I did, and honestly I have never looked back. Here at PSHG –  or Parkies, as we affectionately call it – staff, volunteers, people with Parkinson’s and carers thrive in a warm and friendly atmosphere. We are a family and work hard together to maintain this relationship.

Now, as Centre Coordinator with a terrific team of staff (Jim, Alison and Rachel), volunteers, therapists and members, I like many others live for the day when we’re out of a job – ie when a cure is found. Until then we go on…

Parkinson’s Awareness Week is of course busier than other weeks at PSHG. It lets us appreciate the members we have, and it also allows us to reach out to other people with Parkinson’s, their carers and families. It’s our chance to highlight the work we do here at PSHG and the work of others who continually support them in their daily lives.

This week

Monday – A carers consultation, with Sean and Pauline representing carers services. Nine of our carers came in to discuss the services they have received from our local Council/Social work services over the years. Carers held varied views on support they have received, but first and foremost, as always, is compassion, both for the carer and the cared-for. This was found by them all to be sadly lacking when people are receiving care. They all stayed for around three hours and had a very productive day and some great conversation having their opinions heard.

Tuesday – We had our usual group meeting – 18 folks managed to come along, with a few absent due to minor ailments and three in hospital (Get well soon x). Our members are made up of parkies, carers, ex-carers and a couple of social members. We have six volunteers per day and a whole lot of banter (there’s a good Scottish word for you). People visiting our centre often remark on how cheerful and how much of a buzz there is about the place (we love being at work in the offices upstairs and hearing them all roaring with laughter downstairs). Today was no different and after a tasty two-course lunch, a game of prize bingo, complementary therapies and a visit from Jim’s (Facility Manager) daughter and seven month old grandson Lewis, everyone went home chattering (not from the cold this time).

Wednesday – Our Newly Diagnosed Discussion Group meets today, we also have the Respite Lounge open (staffed by volunteers) where members can pop in for a snack or lunch. (This has been a fantastic service since it started in January 2012 – we wish we’d done it years ago). It brings our folks out of the house and offers companionship more days per week and being on a drop-in basis, we never know who we’re getting through the door.

Thursday – Games Day with members of the Motherwell Area PSHG. It’s the return leg of a friendly – fought tournament where we hold the Cup from our last meeting. So the playing cards will be out, dominoes of course, pool and darts (yes, parkies and darts ). (On a previous Games night we also had a darts board on the floor, so when the darts bounced off the board the score on the floor was still recorded). Our local newspaper photographer Tom will be along to record the event and Margaret, our cook will knock up a scrummy buffet to feed all 40 of us!!

Friday – A half day for me. This Friday the Respite Lounge is open again – it’s the busiest day of the week. A local group Clubnet meet in our Centre and we’re off to a Coatbridge Indoor Bowling club where VOEF (an older people’s forum) and CHAPS (a male carers organisation) are holding an information day. We’ll be there from 10am till 12 noon with information and networking with other voluntary groups.

Next week at PSHG - well who knows what it will bring? At the end of it though me, my hubby Sandy, workmate Jim and Uncle Jimmy are off to walk The Great Glen Way (93 miles) from Fort William to Inverness over five days. This is the fourth of our annual sponsored walks for PSHG.

Follow it on our Facebook page parkinsonself or access this and our donate button at our website http://www.parkinsonselfhelp.org.uk

Andi Peters was the host for the first of four Big Lottery Fund specials broadcast on Community Channel. The UK360 programme gives a voice to local communities across the UK and in this episode, five funded projects took centre stage, explaining how they’ve used BIG funding to improve people’s lives.

Watch the above video as we hear from Gary and Hannah Bishop of the Justlife Centre in East Manchester. They recognised a need in their community for support for people who’d recently left prison or were suffering from drug and alcohol addictions.

We drop in on residents and volunteers in a rural town in Shropshire who desperately depend on the help of their Big Lottery Fund-supported bus service to go about their daily duties. Thanks to £200,000 from BIG, the Friendly Bus is now able to continue providing an essential service for the local community.

The episode also takes us to Oxfordshire, where the Damascus Youth Project is getting young people actively involved in their communities, and we visit the Corley Centre, which is running lunchtime and after-school clubs for children with learning difficulties.

Last but not least we meet The High Oak Youth Group in Birmingham, which runs workshops and activities for all ages centering around healthy eating and being active.

Community Channel is broadcast on Virgin 233, 24/7 on Sky 539 and on Freeview 87 from 2am-8am. Community Channel is available on BT Vision and Sky Anytime’s On Demand service.

What do you think of these films? Leave your comments below or join the conversation on Twitter using #biglf. Community projects in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will feature in future UK360 programmes so stay tuned for those. Follow @biglotteryfund on Twitter for more information.

I always wanted a magic wand when I was a kid. How amazing would that have been?

While I’m still searching for one, there’s a charity I’ve worked with called Papworth Trust who have found the next best thing.

Jimmy Doherty pictured with Lucy, Sophie and Luke

Chickens and pigs aren’t exactly magic. But the difference they made for three people who visited me at Jimmy’s Farm was just incredible!

Lucy, Sophie and Luke do some brilliant things when they’re with Papworth Trust. They’re great guys. But sadly, sometimes people just see their disability and what they can’t do.

I always take people at face value. So when I invited the three down to my farm, with their families for a week, I assumed that Lucy, Sophie and Luke could do everything everyone else can do.

I’ll let you into a little secret. They were a little bit scared of the chickens and pigs when they first saw them. But I saw something magical happen in just a week. Their nerves were blown away in all the fresh air. Within a few days down on the farm, they were collecting eggs (and stroking the chickens) and feeding the pigs like they’d be doing it all their lives.

I’m really proud of the great food that we produce at the farm. But that week, I also saw what difference the animals can make. Lucy, Sophie and Luke just came alive with the chickens and pigs. And they made some cracking caramel and salt ice cream too.

I love the countryside. But I couldn’t believe the difference one week on a farm could make to the three young people and their families. They were quite simply transformed. None of this would have happened without Papworth Trust – it’s such a great charity.

The best news is that thanks to the Big Lottery Fund, what happened with these families at my farm is going to happen every year at Papworth Trust’s Kerry Farm in Wales. I can’t wait for my invite! Maybe I’ll see you there.

If you missed the first two episodes of The Secret Millions you can still catch up with them on Channel Four’s 4oD service. What do you think of Jimmy’s blog? Leave your comments below or join the conversation on Twitter using #secretmillions

Today BIG has announced 10 successful areas in England now on their way to receiving a share of £100m to support people with multiple problems like homelessness, mental ill health, addiction and reoffending.

In this guest blog, Jon Snow, News Presenter and Chair of the New Horizon Youth Centre, gives his thoughts on BIG’s Multiple and Complex Needs investment and its potential impact upon those it reaches out to.

I write as someone who has worked one way and another for some four decades in a project that works with vulnerable and homeless young people.

I started, long before I became a journalist, working as Director of the New Horizon Youth Centre in 1970. I had just come down from university in Liverpool. I had no idea what I was getting into. I worked there in this role for three years.

Jon Snow, Chair, New Horizon Youth Centre

But from that time until now, I have rarely ever come across funding that is targeted directly at supporting people of any age with multiple and complex needs.

That’s why I am so excited and energised by the creative thinking and action that has gone into the Big Lottery Fund’s radically new approach to put up to £100 million behind bringing the assorted services together behind this needy but difficult group of people.

For years New Horizon was classified as a ‘drug project’. But of course, whilst some of our young people were substance abusers, many were not.

Then we became known as a ‘homeless project’. Yes of course ‘accommodation’ is a persistent problem. But for us it was only in a fraction of cases that it was THE problem.

So, were we perhaps a ‘young offenders’ day centre? Yes, we see young offenders but that represents perhaps twenty five per cent of our client base.

Over time we have come to understand that we are all of these things. A place of refuge too for youngsters out of care; young people with mental health issues; young people deprived of a family environment in which to develop.

I have been the Chair of the project now since 1986. It has taken even me, with my history of involvement with New Horizon, many years to accept that we are hard if not impossible to compartmentalise.

I don’t think you can imagine what inspiration we derived from the Big Lottery Fund as they set out on their mission to respond to the provision of support for places, like New Horizon, working to support people with – yes, at last – ‘multiple and complex needs.’ That’s what we do!

Jon Snow pictured with beneficiaries of the Single Homeless Project

It’s hard to estimate in how many people in the UK fit this description of need. Some talk of 60,000. I think it is many more.

We see some 1,500 a year – 90 a day. It is complex and challenging work supporting them. It is expensive, and to many funders, difficult work to fund – precisely because we don’t fit any one category.

I believe this initiative is going to make life changing differences to the lives of very many people previously regarded as on the margins of life and of society. We do reconnect so many with the community. I wouldn’t still be committed to New Horizon if we didn’t.

I’m particularly attracted to the way the Big Lottery Fund has engaged the client groups themselves in designing services and identifying the diversity of need.

In austere and difficult times, the Big Lottery Fund is laying the foundations towards making a profound difference. We at New Horizon have worked with an array of governments and local authority administrations whose commitments constantly change through the electoral cycle.

This initiative goes beyond that with an urgently needed long-term commitment and sustained work, which will produce long-term improvements in the lives of people that the rest of society has often already written off. I’m honoured to support their endeavour.

Did you enjoy reading Jon’s blog on BIG’s multiple and complex needs investment? Leave your comments below or join the conversation on Twitter using #biglf.