Lottery Boost For Young Carers

A project to improve the lives of young Northern Ireland people caring for sick parents is to benefit from lottery funding. It is one of 12 programmes to receive more than £5.2m from the Big Lottery Fund in its latest round of grants.

A project to develop a mental health support campaign for students and a project to tackle self-harm, suicide and addiction also received funding.

Money has also been given to support young people with special needs. It will be targeted at pupils with special needs who are at mainstream schools.

Ardoyne Community Healthcare Centre secured a grant of £492,831 to develop a project for up to 3,000 young people living in the Ardoyne and the Shankill areas of Belfast.

Project co-ordinator Una McRoberts said: “This grant from the Big Lottery Fund will allow us to employ specialised staff to develop a range of services for young people such as counselling, peer education, sexual health, drama citizenship and cross community activities.”