Thousands won for Lewisham community projects

The People's Millions. Pic: Big Lottery Fund

Community projects in Lewisham awarded The People’s Millions prize. Pic: Big Lottery Fund

Two community projects in Lewisham have won more than £40,000 of funding each in the People’s Millions draw.

London Play, along with partners Assembly SE8, won £43,232 for “Old Hands and Mud Pies”: an inter-generational project tackling isolation among older people by bringing them together with the young people of Deptford in outdoor play.

Shed Heaven, an initiative launched by Grove Park Community Group to teach local young people woodwork and practical skills, missed out on the main award but won the People’s Millions Bonus Award, worth £50,000.

A spokesperson for London Play said: “Winning the People’s Millions was really important for London Play as an organisation but more importantly it was really beneficial for the children, older people and for the entire community.”

“This is an area [Deptford] where they really do need projects like this which are bringing people together…What’s really special about this project is that children and older people are going to occupy the same play space at the same time.”

London Play hope the initiative will also benefit the high numbers of children of single parents in Deptford, by providing greater opportunity to interact with older people.

The project is based at the nature garden outside the Old Tidemill School, Deptford, which is open every Saturday for children to explore, garden, build tree houses and cook on an open fire.

The People’s Millions is run by the Big Lottery Fund in partnership with ITV and has given away over £27.8 million in funding since it started in 2005.

Other winners of the People’s Millions for 2013 include The Build Brighter Futures project and Wild About Thamesmead.

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