East Herts Lottery Case Studies
Since signing up for the East Herts Lottery in 2019 Thirst Youth Café has succeeded in raising £745.00 with just a small number of lottery supporters. The café, run by the Bishop's Stortford Youth Project, provides a safe place for young people to go to after school, at weekends and in school holidays where they can make friends, have fun and have access to youth workers offering youth training and mentoring. They are now looking to drum up extra support via the East Herts Lottery to help provide much needed funding to maintain the important work they already do to support the young people of Bishop’s Stortford and surrounding areas.
Dave Cody, Community Fundraiser & Communications Manager for Bishop’s Stortford Youth Project said: “The East Herts Lottery has been supporting the Thirst Youth Cafe since 2019 and is a great way for anybody to help to keep the Thirst Cafe open and provide local young people with a safe and fun space to enjoy themselves and have access to positive role models."
Bishop’s Stortford Hockey Club was one of the first local sports groups to register in 2019 and they have significantly boosted their fundraising generating £6,510 so far. Their supporters have also enjoyed prize winnings that total £1,600, including three prizes of £250 for matching four numbers.
Gregg Pettit, Junior Director at Bishop’s Stortford Hockey Club said: “The funds we have raised through the East Herts Lottery have been used to boost our junior coaching provision and enabled us to develop a junior outreach programme by delivering training, free of charge, to local primary and secondary schools, paid for by the club. We are always looking at ways to boost our fundraising efforts and the East Herts Lottery has proven to be easy to administer, is popular with our supporters, and allows us to raise much needed funds for the club, with a particular focus on our junior division.”
Acehounds Friendship Dogs raise funds via East Herts lottery to maintain their ‘Visiting Dogs Programme’ that supports vulnerable and lonely people to get out socialising to boost their self-esteem. They also assist those with learning difficulties, dementia and mental health issues; and give support to people facing personal barriers such as unemployment or low self-confidence.
Elaine Sheppard, founder of Acehounds Friendship Dogs, said: “With the aid of our gentle, loving greyhounds we seek to enrich the lives of vulnerable people that live in our community. The power of handling a dog is so therapeutic and helps with a lot of mental issues from stress, depression and not being able to cope with life to coping with dementia. Our gentle dog walking activities are not only fun, but they help people to feel calmer and start to feel better about themselves.”
There is some real talent waiting to be nurtured across the district and the club are raising funds via the East Herts Lottery to help support young athletes and families with some of the costs of participating competitively in athletics. Correctly fitted spikes, race entry fees, regional and UK wide travel arrangements are some of the basic costs to be covered on top of training fees.
Helen Offord, the new club chairperson, said: “We are so excited to be involved with the East Herts Lottery. Young talent can be held back, unable to fulfil potential due to financial constraints. We intend to use the funds raised to support families that need assistance so that the young people can enjoy the benefits of participating in sport instead of worrying about how they will afford to do it. Our athletes certainly give back too. Tom Rutter was no 1, in his age group, in the country for Javelin last year and Ellie Bostock number 2, in her age group, for shot putt; both train here but also help out at the academy in their free time, other senior athletes help in the sports hall inspiring the young talent coming through.”
Raising money to carry out much needed repairs and renovations to the existing Scout Hut to ensure it is fit for purpose, not just now but for many years to come. The clubhouse is the base for weekly meetings and activities and keeping it maintained is critical to being able to continue all the work of 2nd Bengeo Scouts and the young people they support.
Simon Green, Group Exec said: “As a fundraiser for the scouts, the registration process for the East Herts Lottery was very easy to follow. You get an online website to direct potential supporters too and regular marketing support coming through too. We use the funds raised to help us maintain our Scout Hut which is essential to us being able to continue running the group and supporting our young members. Best of all our very hard working Group Scout leader, Debbie, even won £250.00 last year!
