Vote for your community favourite
"This is amazing, it means absolutely everything to us."
Jubilant volunteers at Age Concern, based in Coppull, near Chorley, are celebrating after scooping the 2,000 top prize in the Heart of the Community campaign.
Barclays Bank teamed up with the Lancashire Evening Post to offer a series of grants for community projects across the county.
After much deliberation, experts at Barclays have chosen Age Concern Lancashire, to give them a helping hand with their Off the Ground project to create their community allotment.
The garden will be based on land at Coppull Primary School, in Park Road, Coppull, where elderly people will work with primary school pupils and members of the Prince's Trust.
A shortlist of 10 have also been selected for Lancashire Evening Post readers to choose a 1,000 winner and two groups who will receive 500 each.
Caroline Dawber, 43, Coppull outreach officer, based at Age Concern, in St Thomas's Road, in Chorley, said: "It means absolutely everything, we have no money.
"We started in the New Year and we had a little help from the Prince's Trust, but they have been and gone. We need this money to get it off the ground, we need seeds and tools and everything."
Rachel Herbinson, community investment manager at Barclays, said: "It was really hard to choose the overall winner as we feel that all the fantastic shortlisted groups offer much valued services to the local community in which they operate.
"We hope our investment through the partnership with the Evening Post will have a lasting effect on the local community."
Take a look at the shortlisted entries below. To cast your vote complete a coupon printed in the Evening Post and send it to Heart of the Community, The Lancashire Evening Post, Olivers Place, Fulwood, Preston PR2 9ZA.
You may vote as many times as you like, photocopies not accepted but multiple votes can be submitted in one envelope.
Additional voting coupons will be printed all this week in The Lancashire Evening Post.
Alternatively simply text LEPHEART followed by space then the name of the group you wish to vote for and send to 81800.
Texts cost 60p plus your standard network charge.
Closing date for all votes is noon on midnight Sunday December 13.
Standard LEP competition rules apply.
Shortlist of 10
Holme Slack Community Primary School
Our School gardening club has now been running for two years and we find it difficult to finance these extra curricular activities such as buying the plants and the reward for the hardest working team of children.
We find this club is excellent for motivating our children and offers them experiences that they may not have at home while enhancing our schools grounds.
Preston Muslim Forum (PMF)
We serve communities in some of the most deprived areas of Preston, helping them in obtaining advice/support for jobs, health, benefits, childcare, education etc.
Recently PMF fell on hard times due to a lack of funding.
Currently it is manned by volunteers but needs financial help for office rent and to pay some outstanding and ongoing bills.
We are in the process of raising some long-term funding for projects; any support will pay for outstanding and ongoing bills.
Preston and District Scope (P&DS)
We are a registered charity providing much-needed support and services for people with Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities. P&DS is independent and self-funding, so we do not receive funding from the National Scope organisation.
We would like to start a music group that would be held at our centre on a weekly basis for adults with disabilities.
We would spend the money purchasing musical instruments which would also be used by our disabled children at the after-school club and young persons' group.
The Space Centre (The Multi Sensory Centre)
We are the largest multi-sensory "space" in the country dealing with all disabilities of all ages and creed.
We cater for people from all over the North West, especially Preston and its surrounding areas, providing opportunities and experiences for those with special needs.
The grant would be used to purchase a "light space system" which is an interactive projection system.
S.M.I.L.E (Preston) Self Motivation In Lasting Endorphins
We are a small self-help group for chronic pain sufferers.
A typical S.M.I.L.E meeting would begin with refreshments and a chat and then would be followed by gentle exercises and then a relaxation session.
These gentle exercises help chronic pain sufferers release much-needed endorphins, the body's natural pain killer and helps keep members mobile, flexible and active.
We also organise monthly pilates session, a tai chi session and swimming.
Twice a month we also organise holistic treatments for our members subsidised by the club.
We are mainly self-financing through weekly and annual subscriptions, grants and fund-raising.
It is these costs for the exercise and holistic treatments that we would look to use any grant awarded.
Chorley and South Ribble Shop Mobility
Shop Mobility provides mobility equipment in the town centre to enable people with walking difficulties the opportunity to visit the local shops.
A grant would enable us to replace the batteries on the scooters which last approximately two years.
The batteries cost us in the region of 80 each and we need 16 new batteries every year.
The organisation is run by a manager along with volunteers and is a deserving scheme.
Cardinal Newman College
The Essential Skills department is a course delivered at Cardinal Newman College for students with learning difficulties aged 16-20 years.
As part of the enrichment programme we run the Duke of Edinburgh Award to enhance the development of their independence skills.
The students involved with the programme are working towards the Bronze and Silver Awards.
Due to the nature of some of their disabilities, this does mean extra costs for specialist instructors.
Garstang Rainbow Pre-school
We are a voluntary pre-school run by a parent committee established in 1974.
Much of the available grants in 'early years' are for outdoor play, which is something we can't provide on the first floor of a community building.
We would like to develop our resources both with indoor toys such as a wooden dolls house and "outdoor toys" such as a tandem trike and pretend building bricks.
The Legacy Rainbow House
Essentially our aim is to teach children with brain injury and disabilities how to gain independent life skills, enabling them to live more active lives through specialist teaching.
We would use this money to hold a big Christmas party for the children attending to celebrate the past year and the achievements they have made.
Our children really deserve a special Christmas for all the hard work they put in at The Legacy.
NAS Preston and district
We began as a parent self-help group and were formed due to the fact that our children were diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder and there was very little help and support in the area.
We organise a monthly meeting to give our members access to IT equipment.
We provide welcome packs for new members and spend a lot of time talking to parents, listening to their problems and helping where we can.
If we were successful we would use the money to finance art and music therapy workshops, something which our parents and children can do together.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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