Skills 4 All celebrates after receiving almost £20k National Lottery funding boost

Skills 4 All Co-Directors Rubbi Bhogal-Wood and Reddy Lenge with some of the project participants from Saint John Henry Newman Catholic College in Chadderton

Local community group Skills 4 All is celebrating after being awarded almost £20,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work to empower young girls with the skills and platform to create community change through filmmaking.

Skills 4 All has been running since 2019 and is run by Reddy Lenge and Rubbi Bhogal-Wood.

It is an award-nominated community organisation providing underserved young people with opportunities to develop their curiosity, creativity and confidence through hands-on digital projects and workshops. 

They are committed to helping young people step into a future that excites them and helps them to discover their true potential in an ever-growing digital space

Their project, Girls in the Lead - A filmmaking project will see Skills 4 All work with over 20 young girls across three schools to create impactful films that address themes such as immigration, mental health, and the environment.

Spanning an academic year, the project will see Skills 4 All share industry level filmmaking skills with the young girls so they can voice their ideas for community change on topics that they are passionate about.

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 see Skills 4 All also introduce the young girls to arts based changemakers with lived experience through guest speaker sessions.

Co-Directors Rubbi and Reddy said: “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 work alongside these young girls to provide them with high quality skills and the platform to have their voices heard about social changes that matter most to them."

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   

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