Citizens Advice Mid Lincolnshire celebrates after receiving £122,845 of National Lottery funding to increase their advice services

The charity will use the money to increase its outreach locations, meaning that they can help more members of the community.

Citizens Advice Mid Lincolnshire is staffed by a mixture of volunteers and paid employees. The charity provides free, confidential, independent and impartial advice to all residents in Boston Borough and North Kesteven. They are able to assist with issues such as welfare benefits, debt, housing, employment, relationships, energy and consumer.

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will enable the opening of five additional outreach locations across Boston and North Kesteven.

Louise Buckingham, CEO of Citizens Advice Mid Lincolnshire says: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to expand our outreach locations and help more people. This work is extremely important, especially with the increasing cost of living and the associated pressures.”

The exciting new project will enable Citizens Advice Mid Lincolnshire to help more of the most vulnerable members of the community. In addition to advice giving, the new outreach services will increase volunteering opportunities. The charity hopes to recruit a team of volunteer ‘Advice First Aiders’ to help run the service.

Chole, volunteer at Citizens Advice Mid Lincolnshire says: “Starting out as a volunteer has helped me to get my life back on track. I have met some fantastic people and gained new skills. It’s a great feeling to be able to help people when they need it.”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year (2023/24) The National Lottery Community Fund awarded over half a billion pounds (£686.3 million) of life-changing funding to communities across the UK, supporting over 13,700 projects to turn their great ideas into reality.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk