The Big Spend Watch!

Watch the vidcasts below and get inspiration on how you can spend the fund or see below for some examples of successful bids.

 

Northgate Gym

The young people at Northgate Youth Centre in Bishop’s Stortford decided they needed their own gym at their youth centre, so they got together, and with help from their Youth Worker applied for funding from The BIG SPEND fund. 

 

Have a look at the vidcast the young people made about their gym below

 

The 50's Filmmakers

 

The Fifties filmmakers, a group of young people brought together by the Letchworth Arts Centre, won some Heritage Lottery funding to create a documentary based on the original 1958 film “We are the Lambeth boys youth club”. The idea behind the documentary was to bring young people in today’s society and people that were teenagers in the 1950’s together to recreate some of their experiences and to see how times have changed.

The young people were also successful in receiving funding from the Big Spend, which enabled the group to hold a Fifties Festival in Letchworth Town Centre on August 3rd to celebrate a positive event to bring different generations together.

Megan, aged 15, who was involved in the bid said “We didn’t believe that the public would want to come to an event that we organised, but they did and they loved it!  The funding was easy to get, plus we had help but if I had known it was that easy I would have done all sorts before now!”

The Fifties group then met up the day after to film Fifties style dancing in the Spirella Ballroom in Letchworth.  The young people also participated in other activities over the week which included having a Fifties-style School assembly, learning how to jive and attending a mock Fifties youth club.

The documentary was premiered at the Broadway Cinema in Letchworth in October with a red carpet event. 

Successful Bids

Youth Opportunity Fund

  • £1,000 for new pieces of equipment, including a Wii, pool table and stereo for a youth project
  • £3,000 to pay for sports tutors and small pieces of sports equipment such as balls, bibs, etc. for an after school sports club
  • £4,000 for workshops and activities for a group of young carers
  • £2,760 for a group of young cricketers to train as coaches and for their club to receive specialist coaching
  • £6,540 to run a Saturday morning club, where young people can take part in activities such as DJing, music and drama
  • £24,053 to create a weekly job forum and workshop for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities during the summer holidays
  • £620 for a group of young people to participate in a 10 week course of Bollywood dance
  • £33,212 to expand a successful youth project so that it operates over extra days and offers additional services/activities

 

Youth Capital Fund

  • £9,674 to pay for safety barriers for a quad bike and go karting track for young people
  • £9,650 to purchase trampoline equipment for a new trampolining club
  • £5,000 to purchase motorcross bikes and safety equipment for a new mini moto club
  • £12,554 to improve the facilities and purchase new equipment for a young people’s boxing club
  • £8,730 to refurbish and replace a youth centre’s kitchen so that they can offer healthy eating / cooking classes and offer better facilities for its users
  • £30,000 to turn an old sports facility into a new all weather pitch with new equipment including football goals and nets
  • £3,000 to purchase new computers, printers and other IT equipment for a youth project