Big Lottery Fund £4.3m handout for Yorkshire's vulnerable groups

Denise Butterell and Dawn Heald made the Big Lottery Funding bid for the Kimberworth Park isolation project

A domestic abuse project in Bradford has been awarded nearly £500,000 to help victims stay in their own homes.

The money is part of a £4.3m handout from the Big Lottery Fund to help people improve their communities in Yorkshire and the Humber.

More than 80 organisations benefited, including a loneliness support group in Rotherham and a project to improve ex-offenders' job prospects in Leeds.

A sports group in Halifax also received £7,450 for young people's workshops.

The Rotherham loneliness support group, which received £484,780, is run from the Chislett Centre at Kimberworth Park Community Partnership in a deprived area of the town.

'Strength to strength'

Manager Dawn Heald said the lottery money helped local groups "go from strength to strength".

"We are starting three different projects here - one for children and families, one for young people, and one for older people," she said.

"People develop relationships which they may not have done before."

St Giles Trust in Leeds was given £499,693 to expand its work in improving employability skills of ex-offenders and vulnerable people in West Yorkshire.

Halifax Hammers FC received £7,450 to deliver dance, music and healthy mind and body workshops for young people, to raise their self-esteem and awareness about sexual exploitation and the consequences of drug use.

Another 80 organisations in the region also received handouts.

The Big Lottery Fund gives out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery to health, education, environmental and charity projects, which equates to more than £650m a year.

Lyn Cole of the Big Lottery Fund said: "The valuable work of these leading charities and community groups is helping make a difference to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society."