ORGANISATIONS in the Okehampton area are celebrating after being awarded thousands of pounds in National Lottery funding to help a wide variety of projects.

Among the recipients of awards is the community recycling centre Proper Job in Chagford, which has been awarded £10,000 to refurbish and extend its community resource centre. The project aims to provide more space and better resources for the community to run sessions about recycling and repair work.

Proper Job hosts workshops and events on recycling, reuse and repair for the general public. These events are either free or heavily subsidised by the social enterprise. Workshops include how to repair clothes, household electricals, furniture and more. Their mission is to educate the local community to conserve resources.

This £10,000 grant will help to develop part of the organisaton’s resource centre to enable them to extend the overhang or an already existing building to create a safe undercover space to host events and workshops, as well as extending this building to make a safe, dry sorting area where reusable items can be processed.

Managing director Alison Sallis said: ‘We are thrilled to have received this grant. We wish to improve the resource centre for our community — the project has grown organically over the years and we currently trade out of a mixture of portable cabins, shipping containers and some permanent buildings.

‘These semi-permanent structures have a limited life span and lack important and basic health and safety features. They are also not suitable for disabled access, and we would like to improve this so we can welcome everyone on to our site. This project is just part of a larger plan to develop the whole site within the next five years.

‘It is a really exciting time for Proper Job, with all this going on, our new shop in Chagford Square and our snack shack at Chagford Pool, we have lots going on and it’s a great time for us.’

Meeth Parish Council has been awarded £2,378.40 for its housing needs assessment. The council plans to carry out a survey of local households, run community events and analyse the findings from these activities to understand local people’s needs around affordable housing and community provision.

Treetops Pre-School and Extended Schools Provision, based in Bridestowe, is to receive £1,412 to run camp and club activities for children during the summer holidays. The project aims to bring the children together to socialise, make friends and experience new things.

The biggest winner of all in the area is MED Theatre, based in Moretonhampstead, which has been awarded £207,000 for its Moor Connections project.

This three year project is a continuation and development of MED Theatre’s previous succesful project ‘Moor Young Voices’, which provided creative opportunities for young people aged 5 to 20 years living in a rurally isolated area of Devon.

The new project will also focus on making connections between communities through work with young people and their families and friends.

Throughout the Moor Connections project young people from across Dartmoor and the surrounding areas will have the opportunity to take part in MED Theatre’s regular drama and playwriting clubs, as well as workshops in filmmaking, music, dance and design.

Speaking about the grant to MED Theatre, James Harcourt, England grant making director at the Big Lottery Fund, said: ‘This project has identified that helping local people to build friendships and connections will help the community to tackle issues that are important to them.

‘We’re proud that our funding supports people who have identified what matters to them and their community and who want to make a positive change.’

Devon’s community organisations have been awarded a total of just more than £725,000 in lottery funding for the quarter.

The money, raised by players for good causes, is being distributed by the Big Lottery Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

In total, 60 community projects in Devon - ranging from a summer holiday activity club to a village hall refurbishment - are receiving a share.

James Harcourt said: ‘Whether in a village, town or city, National Lottery funding is helping to make a difference, bringing communities together to help people lead happier and healthier lives.

‘It’s wonderful to see the positive impact projects are making in Devon.

‘They are an inspiration to others, showing what great things can be achieved when people work together to tackle the things that really matter to their community.’

Devon isn’t alone in enjoying the good news – the South West as a whole is receiving £4.6-million, which is being distributed across 249 community projects and organisations.

The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. Last year it awarded almost £713 million and supported almost 14,000 projects across the UK for health, education, environment and charitable purposes.

The total pot being made available to groups across England this quarter is £45-million.