£37K lottery grant will help carers

A charity that supports adult carers in Bracknell Forest has been awarded a Big Lottery grant of nearly £38,000.

By Laura Herbert
April 04, 2012

Bracknell Forest Voluntary Action (BVFA) provide services for unpaid adult carers in the borough, and successfully secured the grant for its Carers Support Team.

The team, which is part-funded by Bracknell Forest Council, has received grants from the Big Lottery fund for the past four years.

Money from the Big Lottery fund pays for a carers information and advice worker whose role is to support unpaid carers by offering information and directing them to other agencies or groups that could help.

The role also has links with GP surgeries and hospitals to highlight the needs of carers with health services.

On Tuesday, March 20, it was announced the charity would receive £37,214 in funding.

This extra funding means the charity, based in Market Street, can run the project for a further year and help the Carers Support Team develop other services to help unpaid carers.

Chris Bounds, care services manager at BFVA, said: “We are delighted with the news that we were successful in gaining further funding from the Big Lottery.

“Their decision demonstrates they acknowledge how successful this project has been over the past four years.

“That opinion is also echoed by the people who use our service. We recently completed our annual satisfaction survey with our carers and we received feedback that 100 per cent of carers registered with us either rate our service as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.”

The carers support service also received funding from the council to provide social and learning opportunities for carers.

The most recent training event was an emergency first aid course which proved life-saving to one particular carer.

The carer, who wishes to remain anonymous, wrote an email to BFVA: “You may like to know that the first aid course I attended has already paid dividends.

“My wife had a severe hypo a few days ago and I was able get her blood sugar levels up quickly using the advice that [the trainer] gave me. Without that advice I would have called the paramedics or [my wife] would have died.”

Of the funding Bracknell MP Dr Phillip Lee said: “These community funding projects in Bracknell will enable people to make their communities a better place to live, now and in the future.

“I fully support the awards to these projects and I am very pleased to announce that both of them have already been very successful.”

For more details about BFVA call (01344) 304 404, email info@bfva.org or visit www.bfva.org

http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/community/s/