Ballygally and Belleek hope to answer village SOS

Two Northern Ireland projects have been shortlisted by the Big Lottery Fund to compete along with 26 other villages across the UK for between £100,000 and £400,000.

The two Northern Ireland projects in the shortlist are Ballygally Community Development Association and Belleek and District Community Partnership who both hope to be one of the final six projects selected for funding.

Big Lottery Fund (BIG) and the BBC are searching for six UK villages with great business ideas and six enterprising individuals to act as Village Champions and help them achieve their ambitions.Together they will each create a brand new venture that will bring new life and energy to the chosen villages with funding of between £100,000 and £400,000 from BIG. The journey of the six successful villages and their Village Champions will be filmed for a major prime time BBC One series in winter 2010.

Village SOS also aims to make an impact beyond the funded villages through a major learning campaign, which will help other villages use the learning and enthusiasm to take a bold step towards starting a new business that will regenerate their own communities.

Ballygally Community Development Association - Establishing a Social Enterprise and Community Hall

This group in Antrim would use funding to build a retail shop and community hall in the village main street, transforming an eyesore into a vibrant social enterprise. The village does not have a shop or post office and locals have to do a round trip of 10 miles to get to the nearest shop in Larne. If successful they would build a two storey facility with a shop on the ground floor and a community hall on the second floor. In the developed facility, there would be a range of services for local people including drama for young people and IT classes for older people. The shop would have post office facilities, an ATM, Internet access and tourist information.

Belleek & District Community Partnership - Belleek Youth Hostel and International Language School

This group would use funding to to create a Youth Hostel and International Language School in the heart of the village. The area is very isolated and the project would create a vibrant social economy project. As well as bringing in extra revenue and creating jobs the village would have a fantastic building that older and younger people in the village can use for activities. This would include a youth drop in centre and community kitchen where people could meet. An ICT suite would be relocated and hostel guests would have access to the Internet.

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_village_sos.htm?regioncode=-uk&status=the...