Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park, near Barnsley and the Altogether Better Programme in Sheffield have made it through to the finals of The National Lottery Awards 2011, the annual search to find the UKs favourite Lottery-funded projects.
The charities won enough votes from the public to beat off competition from all around the UK. The Altogether Better Programme will now go up against two other finalists Sense Scotland and Surf Action CIC in Penzance - for the title of the UKs Best Health Project. Meanwhile, Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park will go head to head with Unfolding the Quilts programme in York and We Were Brothers in Northern Ireland in the Best Heritage Project category.
The Altogether Better has a programme in Sheffield that recruits, trains and supports Community Health Champions - local people who use their own unique skills, knowledge and experience to motivate and support others to improve their health and well-being.
Altogether Better Programme Manager, Mandy Driver, says: Getting through to the finals of the National Lottery Awards is a fantastic achievement! It is a wonderful way to thank everyone involved in Altogether Better and recognise the amazing achievements of over 13,000 Community Health Champions who are volunteering in communities across Yorkshire and Humber to improve health and well being and transform lives.
Thank you to everyone who has voted for us, we are over the moon to be in the finals and we hope to build on this success to ensure that community empowerment is at the heart of happy and healthy communities across our country.
Wentworth Castle Trust was created in 2002 to rescue the historic Wentworth Castle Estate from dereliction through a programme of restoration, and provide extensive public access to this 18th-century estate for the first time. More than 200 volunteers regularly give up their time to maintain the estate and the 26 listed buildings within it.
This years National Lottery Awards are supported by television presenter Julia Bradbury. She says: Its brilliant to see such an inspiring range of Lottery-funded projects - large and small - make it through to final stage of The National Lottery Awards. Lottery players raise 28 million a week for Good Causes and all of the finalists have shown how theyve used their Lottery funding to make a real difference in their communities. Anyone that has ever played the Lottery should feel very proud to know their money has helped support fantastic projects such as these.
There are seven categories in the Awards, which reflect the main areas of Lottery funding: arts, sport, heritage, health, environment, education (in association with Best magazine) and voluntary/charity. There will be one winner in each category which will be decided by a final round of public voting in the autumn. The winning project in each of the categories will receive national recognition at a star-studded event later this year, broadcast on BBC One, as well as a 2,000 cash prize[1] to spend on their project. For more information on the Awards finalists visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards
There will be a total of 22 projects in the finals - three in each of the categories, with the exception of the Arts category which, due to a tie for third place in the semi-final round, four projects instead of three will go through to the final public voting round
There will be only one winner in each category. The seven winners will be announced during a special BBC One television programme transmitted later in the year
The public will be able to vote for the overall winner from 2 September 2011.
This article is a press release provided by the national lottery.