Communities throughout UK gear up to celebrate the King’s Coronation with National Lottery support
4th May 2023
Hundreds of charities and organisations throughout the UK are using National Lottery funding to mark the Coronation of His Majesty The King with activities to bring people together and make a lasting positive impact in their communities.
One of those projects is the Cherwell Collective in Oxfordshire, who empower local people to reduce their carbon footprint and provide support to those struggling with the cost of living. Founder Emily Connally is thrilled that so many people will be brought together to celebrate the landmark occasion in a sustainable way again this year.
She said: “We did one for the Jubilee as well - and we’ll repurpose the decorations from the Jubilee, so another use for those items.”
“We wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without The National Lottery - it’s been incredible. We’re getting more people involved and we’re reducing waste - which is what we want to do.”
Following its success during the Platinum Jubilee, The National Lottery Heritage Fund are expanding their “New to Nature” programme in partnership with community charity, Groundwork. The programme is creating 25 extra paid work placements to help young people from diverse backgrounds get green jobs.
Groundwork Chief Executive Graham Duxbury said: “It’s an ageing workforce and it’s not very diverse. People from different backgrounds find it impenetrable and hard to get a foot on the career ladder in the nature and landscape sector, so what this programme is all about is facilitating routes into that work experience.”
“Fundamentally, this wouldn’t happen without the support of The National Lottery. They particularly galvanised this through an additional strand of funding linked to the Queen’s Jubilee and they’ve recently provided more funding linked to the King’s Coronation. They’ve been the driving force behind making this happen.”
With National Lottery funding distributed through Sport England, the Dallaglio Rugbyworks project are helping more children and young people in the North East develop physical and mental fitness, alongside career aspirations.
“Our programme is broken down into four cornerstones,” said Head of Delivery Phil Hannah.
“Cornerstone one is developing life skills, which we do through rugby-based active learning. Our second cornerstone, raising aspirations, is about helping young people into the world of work.”
“The third and fourth cornerstone is mental and physical health and wellbeing. The physical is taken care of through rugby and signposting to other sports clubs in the areas, and we also deliver some mental wellbeing workshops to young people.”
“This funding from The National Lottery is for an area outside where we usually work, and we’ve got a small pot of money to do some sessions in some schools up there.”
Arts Council England have been busy banging the drum for The Coronation Bandstands project. In celebration of the Coronation, the project is providing opportunities for children and young people to take part in and watch performances in public park bandstands across the country.
The project is being delivered by Music for Youth, who are working with cultural organisations across the country to stage the events.
Director of Programmes, Kate Gardner, said: “We’re working with local partners across England and there are going to be 15 events taking place on local bandstands, celebrating the local culture of each area, allowing the people to come and listen to young people make great music.
“The National Lottery funding is vital for this. We wouldn’t be able to bring this together without it and I think it’s been wonderful to see how that money has supported local communities coming together.”
