National Lottery Awards 2013 Finalists
We are delighted to share with you all that the Devon Active Villages project has been selected as a finalist in the National Lottery Awards 2013. Devon Active Villages is competing against six other projects for the title of Best Sport Project and we feel this is a particularly special achievement given that it is the only local project in England in its category.
Get behind us Devon
We could be in with the chance of appearing on a BBC One show and winning £2,000 to help our project continue its work, but we need your vote to help us win! Supporting us is FREE, just visit http://bit.ly/NLAdevon to cast your vote.
The project with the most votes in each category will be declared the winner and members of the public will be able to vote from today until Wednesday 24th July, so please can we urge you to take a couple of minutes to vote online.
Let us explain why we feel we have such a deserving project…
Devon Active Villages has helped and supported over 10,000 people living in rural communities to take part in sport where they live by providing specialist support, equipment and training to over 120 villages. What makes this project particularly special is that we work with each local community to establish what is wanted and what is feasible and then work with volunteers, providing coach training to make the solution sustainable, leaving sports provision in place long after our involvement has ended .
It’s been an ambitious project and we haven’t done this by ourselves, we have a wonderfully strong and passionate local delivery partner network who have helped us to make Devon Active Villages the success it is. Through them we have been able to offer a variety of sports and physical activities from more traditional to the downright unusual and bring the fun and excitement of sport to the doorstep of those living in more remote parts of the County.
People in the local villages have told us how the sessions have really pulled the community together; cricket sessions put on for youngsters in Chagford led to impromptu weekly games of volleyball for the parents, ballroom classes in Langtree led to one lady meeting her neighbours after living in the village for three years and making friends with the other 30 regular attendees and Princetown FC set up following support from Active Villages, brought a whole community together for the first time in many years and in the words of the locals “took an aspiration to a reality that is slowly changing the whole dynamic and vibrancy of the town”.
The programme has also helped to identify undiscovered talent; youngsters from Northlew and North Tawton who started Muay Thai through Active Villages are now British and European Title Holders and Halwill Junction Archers Club, established only two years ago through Active Villages now boasts a continuously growing medal collection.
The Devon Active Villages approach is so successful, funding has recently been secured to roll out Devon Active Communities, a project similar in nature to Devon Active Villages but which will see more urban communities included. Winning this award will be a huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard to deliver this fantastic project and will give recognition to the volunteers and people in the villages who are continuing to make sport happen for their communities.
Every vote counts, so we really appreciate your taking part! Just visit http://bit.ly/NLAdevon to cast your vote.
You can follow the Awards campaign on Facebook and Twitter - why not tweet your support for us using #DevonActiveVillages #NLAwards
We’ll keep you updated on our progress – and again, thank you so much.
Have a look at our film below to find out more about how Active Villages works...
