Press Release
Lottery helps Chance UK put children on the positive path
16 May 2012
Chance UK is delighted to announce the creation of two new programmes to be opened in Enfield and Waltham Forest after being granted funding from the Big Lottery Funds Realising Ambitions project.
The initiative will work with 200 five to eleven year olds over a 5 year period, using its innovative early intervention programme to prevent young children getting involved in crime.
The charity has been providing confidence-building mentors for primary school children with behavioural difficulties for over 18 years. It works in boroughs including Hackney, Islington, Lambeth and Westminster, and will now be able to offer the same service to children in the London Boroughs of Enfield and Waltham Forest.
The Big Lottery Funds Realising Ambitions project, from which Chance UK's new programmes funding comes, will ensure thousands of young people avoid becoming involved in criminal activity and anti-social behaviour and will extend massively the reach of the 25 projects chosen to benefit. The tried and tested interventions – of which Chance UK is at the forefront – are some of the most well evidenced prevention projects presently operating in the UK or internationally.
They will be delivered by charities in a range of settings, including schools, communities and within families, targeting young people living in disadvantaged areas or considered at risk of offending due to different factors, from bereavement to family instability or living in gang-afflicted communities.
Peter Ainsworth, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund said: "That prevention is better than cure is a well known axiom and there is a clear need for a more systemic and intelligent approach to preventative work. BIG's Realising Ambition project offers a unique opportunity to find and support the best projects and share the best practice across the UK."
"The project will make a significant contribution to learning and evidence about how to deliver timely and high quality services to children and young people. As part of the project a rigorous evaluation of the impact and value for money of BIG's investment in replicating these models will be an important part of this initiative and will provide valid insights into what works best and why."
Gracia McGrath OBE added "The Realising Ambitions funding brings together some of the best interventions in the UK and Chance UK is proud to be among them. Enfield suffered in last summer's riots and it is essential that we ensure that our next generation of young people do not follow those negative role models. In Waltham Forest there has been a growing gang culture for some years now and the targeting of vulnerable primary school children as gang members has increasingly become a problem. Chance UK are looking forward to taking on these big challenges and supporting the young people in both these boroughs to realise their ambitions."
Chance UK provides volunteer mentors for primary-aged children with behavioural difficulties at risk of developing anti-social and criminal behaviour across the UK. For more information, contact Daniel Moir on 020 7281 5858 ext 214 (office) / 07872665269 (mobile) or email Daniel.moir@chanceuk.com
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