The National Lottery Awards are the annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects and recognise the positive impact that Lottery-funded projects – both big and small – make to local communities. 

There are three finalists in each of the seven categories in the awards that reflect the main areas of Lottery funding: arts, education, environment, health, heritage, sport, and voluntary/charity.

The finalists are:

Best Arts Project

• The Achieving Something Special project in Northern Ireland provides a creative space for adults with learning disabilities to work in, showcasing their creative arts talents. 
• Drumatik is an inclusive community drumming group based in the regeneration area of West Fife, Scotland. 
• BALTIC is an international centre for contemporary art in Gateshead.

Best Education Project

• Jubilee Time After Time is a schools-based project in Bath that uses activities to break down prejudices and barriers between older people and younger generations.
• Lifelong Learning at Saltholme on Teesside offers events and activities that encourage people’s enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of wildlife. 
• PLUGGED IN magazine was set up to raise literacy educational standards in the South Wales Valleys, as well as the need for vocational education in the creative industries.

Best Environment Project

• Community Space Challenge offers young people at risk of offending the opportunity to improve their local community through clean-up and make-over events across England. 
• The Watershed Landscape Project is a series of conservation, restoration, education and creative arts initiatives in the South Pennine uplands. 
• Harvest Brighton & Hove helps people to grow their own food through training, volunteering and finding more land for community gardens.

Best Heritage Project

• The Bute Park Restoration Project has transformed Cardiff's largest city centre park into a place celebrated by the city’s residents and visitors alike.
• The Curzon Community Cinema in Somerset, which has been operating since 1912, has recently reopened as a historical centre for the local community to enjoy. 
• Durlston Castle in Dorset, a key attraction on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, has reinvigorated the local area’s tourism and generated jobs.

Best Sport Project

• Back to Netball encourages women of all ages to take up the sport across England.  
• Longridge Activity Centre in Marlow is an innovative outdoor activity centre, enjoyed by people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. 
• Wheels for Wellbeing is a charity based in Brixton that promotes disability cycling across south London.

Best Voluntary/Charity Project

• FREEWHEELING @ Adrenaline Alley enables young people in Northamptonshire - including those who are disabled and disadvantaged - to participate in BMX, skateboard, in-line skate and scooter activities. 
• Kidz Unlimited provides young disabled people with fun and friendship clubs and camps across the UK. 
• New Forest Nightstop provides free short term emergency accommodation for homeless young people aged 16-24 around the New Forest. 

Best Health Project

• The Bionic Ear Show, run by national charity Deafness Research UK, is an educational, fun and interactive show that promotes safe listening. 
• Be Healthy, a community project near Hastings, strives to ensure that young people are physically, emotionally and mentally healthy. 
• The Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum is a healthy living centre in Northern Ireland which has pioneered community-led health improvement since 2001.

The winner in each category, decided by public vote, will be celebrated at a special star-studded BBC One show later in the year. Winners receive a £2,000 cash prize to spend on their project as well as a coveted National Lottery Awards trophy. Prior to that, films of the projects in action will be screened on The National Lottery Draw Show on BBC One.

Jackie O’Sullivan at The National Lottery Awards said: “National Lottery players raise over £30million for Good Causes every week. The National Lottery Awards are a terrific reflection of the life-changing work that’s being carried out in our communities with this money.”

Voting for the finals ends at midnight on Sunday 28 October. To vote log on to the Lottery Good Causes website. 

Notes to editors

• Calls cost no more than 5p from a BT landline. Calls from other networks may vary, calls from mobiles could cost considerably more. Callers are advised to check with their telephone network provider to be certain of the cost. No profit will be made from the cost of the phone vote by The National Lottery 
• All voting will be independently adjudicated and verified by Electoral Reform Services

Further information

Please contact Isabel Allanwood on 020 7211 3898 / isabel.allanwood@lotterygoodcauses.org.uk.