Over 100 Millennium Award winners from across the North West will be meeting to celebrate their achievements through the Millennium Awards Scheme at URBIS in Manchester on Saturday 26 April 2003. Cumulatively Award winners in the North West have received an amazing £8 million of Millennium Lottery money which they have invested in a range of innovative community projects across the region.

Funded by the Millennium Commission, Millennium Awards are small Lottery grants of around £2,000 that give individuals the chance to improve their skills and as a result strengthen their communities. Over 27,000 Awards have already been made throughout the UK, of which over 2,100 of these have been won by people in the North West. Award winners from Manchester and across the region are meeting to enjoy a day of networking, sharing and developing skills, ideas and knowledge as a result of their experiences from this unique and powerful programme.

The strength of the Millennium Awards Scheme lies in the huge variety of people it helps and encourages. Award winners in turn are tackling issues such as drug taking, bullying, long term illness and isolation which are so often at the heart of the community. A Social Impact Study¹ into the Awards illustrates that Millennium Awards really do make a difference:

• 85% of Award winners thought the project was a success in terms of its effect on the community
• 
  78% of Award winners gained increased confidence as a result of their Award
• 
  74% of Award winners gained a qualification as a result of their Award
• 
  73% of Award winners feel their Award made them more optimistic about the future

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Award winners across the North West and we're thrilled to be bringing so many of them together to celebrate their achievements at URBIS."

Millennium Awards are still available to people throughout the North West. For more information contact 0800 06801 2000.

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You are invited to send a reporter / photographer to URBIS on Saturday 26th April at 11.30 for a press call, when you can meet some of the Millennium Award winners. For further information please contact the Millennium Commission Press Office on 020 7880 2007 out of hours 07768 568 947.

Notes to Editors

1 The Millennium Commission is one of the good causes which distributes funds from the National Lottery.
2 The Millennium Commission has supported:

Around 200 new buildings, environmental projects and visitor attractions on over 3000 sites across the UK.;
Over 100 Awards Schemes which distribute Millennium Awards to individuals for community based projects. Over 27,000 people have already received a Millennium Award and there are still thousands of Awards available. Further information is available on 0800 06801 2000. A new charity, UnLtd, will continue to distribute Millennium Awards into the future. Further information is available at 0845 850 1122.
A UK-wide programme of community festivals which began on New Year's Eve 1999 and culminated on New Year's Eve 2000 with celebrations in 32 towns and cities across the UK.;
The Millennium Experience at Greenwich and the National Programme.
3 The Millennium Commission stopped receiving funds from the National Lottery in August 2001.
4 URBIS is part of the Manchester Millennium Quarter Project which was funded by a Millennium Commission grant of £20 million.
5 Case study of Millennium Award winner attending event:

Children in north Manchester have had a lively introduction to Samba thanks to Jacinta Cahill's 'Health Through Action' Millennium Award. The lack of a carnival tradition and Samba-based activities in her area didn't deter Jacinta, who realised the potential boost the Latin American activities could offer to her community. She knew that with the training, running costs and instruments her Award provided she would be able to offer just what the local people were looking for. Thanks to Jacinta's Award, a group of children and parents now enjoy weekly meetings where they take part in dancing, music workshops and costume making. Jacinta and the group are delighted to be making their debut performance at a parade in Cheathams Hill in May.

References
¹The Social Impact Study of Millennium Awards was commissioned by the Millennium Commission in April 2002 and undertaken by Annabel Jackson Associates. It is based on 527 telephone interviews with Millennium Award recipients. Interviewees were selected randomly.

Millennium Commission  23rd-April-2003
Categories:  News Archive
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