Thomley celebrates after receiving £273,535 of National Lottery funding to help people with disabilities
Thomley is today celebrating after being awarded £273,535 in National Lottery funding for its programmes and activities for people with disabilities. Serving Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, Thomley will use the money to provide learning and leisure activities for people with disabilities they would otherwise be at risk of missing out on.
Thomley was conceived in 1997 by parents of children with autism and complex needs. Many of these families felt excluded from mainstream leisure facilities and wanted to create a safe, fun and inclusive place to spend time together. A place where the staff and other visitors would be understanding and supportive, and everyone would be welcomed.
Thomley sees more than 15,000 visits by people with disabilities each year – along with 22,500+ visits by parents, carers, family members and the wider community – providing a wide range of developmental opportunities and experiences including cooking clubs, outdoor camping weekends and the Thomley Achieve Life Skills Programme for young people (ages 16-25) with autism and learning disabilities.
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 funding in the UK, is a five-year award and will help Thomley meet the needs of visitors as it continues to grow, with record attendance projected in 2024 and future growth expected in the years ahead.
Ewan Shinton, Chief Executive of Thomley says: “We are delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has made a major award to support Thomley over the next five years. Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to continue providing opportunities and experiences for people with disabilities. There is greater demand for our services and activities than ever before, and this funding is important because it allows us to plan for the future with confidence.”
Visitor Quote: “I honestly don’t have the words for how I feel about Thomley and how grateful I am. Our son has difficulties which used to show in extremely difficult and often violent behaviour and we literally couldn’t take him out at all at one stage. At Thomley he has been able to make friends, practice social skills and try new things. Staff have helped him to engage with others, his self-esteem has skyrocketed, and his behaviour has improved beyond measure. We all love Thomley and we are not sure how we would have survived without it over the past 5 years.”
The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new 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 heathier lives.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities.
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