National Lottery continues to fund Anster Community Development Project

The project was set up with Lottery funding in 2021, at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and enabled the AIA to employ its first member of staff, a community development worker. It has broadened the range of activities and events that the AIA offers, as part of its vision to support a thriving and resilient community. The project is directly responsible for attracting additional funding of more than £500,000 to the area.

The AIA launched the initiative during the pandemic, responding to local need with a new early years group for first-time parents who were unable to access any other support at the time.

After the pandemic, the project focused on rebuilding the AIA’s former programme and growing it further, so that it now includes a monthly community cinema, an evening lecture series, regular coffee mornings for all ages and two weekly craft groups.

These are alongside bigger annual events, such as the AIA’s popular duck race at Easter and Vintage Day in October. These and other events and activities provide more than 100 volunteering experiences for local residents, enabling them to share or develop skills and connect with others.

Volunteers are also at the heart of the Dreel Burn Project and the Shelled Wall Project, both community-led initiatives that were established by the AIA as part of the ACDP.

AIA Chair Christine Palmer said: “With this grant The National Lottery Community Fund is recognising what the Anster Community Development Project has brought to our community in its first three years.

"We are enormously grateful to the Fund and to the National Lottery players, and excited to take the project forward over the next three years, building on our success."