You or your community can obtain funds to develop a 'breathing place'. It's a green space that benefits wildlife and the local community, and is accessible to the public. These spaces can be community forests, local woodland, roadsides, parks, local nature reserves, ponds, green corridors and wildlife meadows. The programmeThe Breathing Places small UK grants programme has been developed in partnership with the BBC and is administered by the Big Lottery Fund, and the Community Service Volunteers Action Desk at BBC Radio Sheffield wants to help you get involved!  | | Make a difference with Breathing Places |
The lottery money made available will fund projects which support community involvement in improving your local environment, and create and care for wildlife-friendly green spaces. Around £5m will be distributed between now and March 2007, the funding has been split into two phases. Phase one has £1m available for community groups that are already up and running. If your group needs help to develop existing breathing places and make them more accessible to people in their community, this is for you. The deadline for your applications is 26 July, 2006. Phase two will be launched in Autumn and will support the creation of new breathing places. Grants given will be between £300 and £10,000 to fund a specific activity. Total project costs must not exceed £25,000. The grants will mainly be for revenue in this first phase. If your project is for capital, you are advised to apply to phase two of the programme. If you do not own the land you plan to work on, you may need a lease or written permission from the landowner. The application is straight forward, there's plenty of help to fill in the form and there's expertise from BTCV [British Trust for Conservation Volunteers] and the Wildlife Trusts in South Yorkshire to help turn your ideas into reality, so get cracking! Contacts- Big Lottery Fund - Tel: 0845 410 2030 or 0845 367 0610
- Email: general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk
- Web: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
For more information on Breathing Places projects in our region and for Local BBC Coverage of your project and ideas contact:
Andy Kershaw,
CSV Action Desk Producer,
BBC Radio Sheffield,
Tel: 0114 267 5444
Email: actiondesk.sheffield@bbc.co.uk | 
