The National Lottery Awards recognise the positive impact that Lottery-funded projects – both big and small – make to local communities.

Over 500 Good Causes entered this year’s Awards. Seventy have been shortlisted across seven categories, which reflect the main areas of National Lottery funding: arts, heritage, voluntary/charity, education, environment, health and sport.

Actor John Barrowman is supporting the Awards. He said: “So many lives are being changed by the unsung heroes working with National Lottery funding. The National Lottery Awards pay tribute to their selfless dedication. National Lottery players raise a massive £30 million a week for Good Causes across the UK. They should be proud that they are helping arts, sport, heritage and community groups near them. Now is the chance for everyone to vote for their local project so it gets national recognition."

Voting for the semi-finals has already started and ends at midday on Sunday 22 July. Three projects in each category with the highest number of votes will make it through to a star-studded final, broadcast live on BBC One later in the year, where the winners in each category will receive £2,000. Read more about the projects and vote on The National Lottery website.

Here is the full list of projects shortlisted for an award this year:

Best Arts Projects

• Bas Vegas is a film created by local residents in Basildon which will be released in December. 
• FLOW is an arts programme which encourages the local community in Northamptonshire to engage with the environment. 
• Me, Myself & I is a photographic art project which aims to allow young offenders to express themselves through creativity in Wakefield.  
• uScreen, based in Folkestone, Kent, offers young deaf and disabled people the opportunity to make films online. 
• Conflux in Glasgow aims to develop and promote a thriving community of artists and educators working in the fields of physical performance. 
• Drumatik is an inclusive community drumming group based in the regeneration area of West Fife, Scotland. 
• Drake Music Scotland’s TRACS project exists to breakdown the social barriers for disabled people through music. 
• 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. 
• BALTIC is an international centre for contemporary art in Gateshead. 
• Fonn Nam Fèis is a lifelong learning project enabling adults to learn to play traditional Scottish music.

Best Heritage Project

• Durlston Castle in Dorset, a key attraction on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, has reinvigorated the local area’s tourism and generated jobs. 
• Curzon Community Cinema which has been operating since 1912 has recently reopened as a historical centre for the local community to enjoy.
• The ss Great Britain Trust manages and operates a multi award-winning museum in Bristol, which is home to a historic ship designed by Brunel. 
• Grandma Flew Spitifires! is an exhibition which tells the story of the amateur pilots who were allowed to fly planes between factories and front-line squadrons during the Second World War. 
• The restoration and development of Maryhill Burgh Halls has brought a much loved hub for community activity and celebration back to life. 
• The Riverside Museum is a replacement for the previous Museum of Transport and new home for Clyde Maritime Trust and historic tall ship Glenlee in Glasgow.
• The Memory Exchange Project celebrates the contribution that older people make to our community by recording their memories and experiences. 
• A Taste of Hackney is a history project celebrating the vibrant past of Ridley Road Market in Hackney.
• Talgarth Mill Green Energy Project has restored an 18th century mill, regenerating the local area. 
• 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.

Best Environment Project

• Harvest Brighton & Hove helps people to grow their own food through training, volunteering and finding more land for community gardens.
• Community Space Challenge offers young people at risk of offending the opportunity to improve their local community through clean-up and make-over events. 
• The Mytholmroyd Memorial Garden project refurbished a garden in the centre of the community, which had become a centre of anti-social behaviour.
• The Oasis Community Project turned a derelict youth club into a multi-purpose Community Centre on the Kilton estate in Worksop.
• The Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE) is an award-winning experimental eco-building at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) - an environmental centre based in mid Wales. 
• Ponds for People created a rare wetland habitat in Stockport aimed at encouraging the local community to enjoy and become involved in conservation.
• The Sydney Bridge Project offers valuable work experience to disadvantaged people in inner-city Leeds through its furniture recycling scheme. 
• The Watershed Landscape Project is a series of conservation, restoration, education and creative arts initiatives in the South Pennine uplands. 
• FareShare North Wales is fighting food poverty. The scheme works with the food industry to re-distribute food that would otherwise be sent to landfill, to homeless and vulnerable people. 
• Hands On Creative Recycling is a mid Wales social enterprise that provides an opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to help manufacture a range of products from recycled glass, learning new skills along the way.

Best Education Projects

• Books & People @ Howdon Library, which renovated the Howdon community library, helping to provide locals with state-of-the art facilities. 
• Downright Excellent [DEx] is a project in London that provides children with Down’s syndrome vital educational services and specialised support.  
• Fruit-full Schools supports children and young people in the design and management of community apple orchards in their school grounds.
• Jubilee Time After Time is a schools-based project that uses activities to break down prejudices and barriers between older people and younger generations.
• Lifelong Learning at Saltholme offers events and activities that encourage people’s enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of wildlife. 
• Rep London provides skills-based training to 14 to 19 year olds, including customer service and leadership courses. 
• PLUGGED IN magazine was set up to address literacy educational standards in the South Wales Valleys, as well as the need for vocational education in the creative industries. 
• Show Racism the Red Card educates young people on anti-racism by delivering workshops in schools, youth settings and football clubs across Wales with the help of professional footballers and other sporting role models. 
• The Action for Change project provides employment, training and volunteering opportunities in disadvantaged communities. 
• The Access-Ability Project at Belfast Activity Centre engages young people with a broad range of physical, sensory and learning disabilities.

Best Voluntary/Charity projects

• BOOST 4 Young Carers offers self esteem and confidence building courses for young carers aged 9-16 in Suffolk.
• 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. 
• The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Network provides vital support for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. 
• Home-Start Camden matches volunteers who have parenting experience, with disadvantaged and vulnerable families in the local community, who have children under five. 
• Kidz Unlimited provides young disabled people with local 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.  
• Stonepillow Restore is a furniture recycling project, providing practical skills in a working environment for homeless and vulnerable people in and around Chichester. 
• Justlife is a centre for homeless people in East Manchester, helping vulnerable people access housing, healthcare and employment opportunities.
• The One Eighty Degrees Restaurant offers training towards employment in the restaurant trade for young people with learning disabilities from Armagh, Portadown and Craigavon. 
• The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust formed to take over and manage the island for the benefit of the community.

Best Sports Projects

• Back to Netball encourages women of all ages to take up the sport across England.   
• Community Games West Midlands bring people together to take part in sporting and cultural activities where they live in celebration of the London 2012 Games. 
• Longridge Activity Centre in Marlow is an innovative outdoor activity centre, enjoyed by people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. 
• Sport Structures in Birmingham helps people gain confidence and positively change their lifestyles through sport. 
• The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s Think Fit programme gives women from disadvantaged communities in north London the chance to take part in affordable sport and physical activities. 
• Wheels for Wellbeing is a charity based in Brixton that promotes disability cycling across south London.
• Shotton Amateur Boxing Club transformed an old derelict building into an amateur boxing club for the local community to use. 
• Belfast Lough Sailability acquired a specially adapted 20ft vessel - The Searover – giving wheelchair users and opportunity to enjoy water-based activities.
• Annandale and Eskdale Sports Academy offers ‘come and try’ sporting opportunities and top quality coaching sessions for children and young people.
• Fire Fit Families is part of Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service’s work to promote healthy lifestyles and fire safety.

Best Health Project

• Be Healthy, which strives to ensure that young people are physically, emotionally and mentally healthy. 
• The Bionic Ear Show, run by national charity Deafness Research UK, is an educational, fun and interactive show that promotes safe listening.
• The Bogside & Brandywell Health Forum is a healthy living centre based in Northern Ireland which has pioneered community-led health improvement since 2001. 
• Belfast Lough Sailability acquired a specially adapted 20ft vessel - The Searover – giving wheelchair users the opportunity to enjoy water based activities.
• New Explorations...change through mentoring is a volunteer led mentoring service, where mentees can explore their opportunities for positive change.
• The Work Ahead Project offers a coordinated service for people with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) in five areas across Scotland.
• Hywel Dda Health Board’s volunteer scheme ‘Volunteering for Health’ was developed to improve patient’s experience of healthcare for the benefit of local people by action by local people.
• The Transcend project in Wales recruits mental health service users to become volunteer peer mentors, supporting other people through the recovery process.
• Tenovus Cancer Support Advisors help cancer patients in communities across Wales to access vital welfare benefits and other entitlements that support them through their cancer diagnosis.
• Creative Spaces, managed by the Sensory Trust, connects dementia patients who live in care homes, with their surrounding communities and outdoor environments. 
• CLAN’s new Cancer Support Centre and CLAN Haven, its accommodation facility, in Aberdeen provides a supportive and comfortable hub for cancer patients, as well as carers, family, or friends

Notes to editors
All voting will be independently adjudicated and verified by Electoral Reform Services.

Semi- Finals
• There are 10 projects in each of the seven categories.
• The public can vote from 9am on Tuesday 26 June and any vote cast before midday on Sunday 22 July will be counted.
• The three projects with the most votes in each category will go through to the final round of public voting.
Finals
• There will be a total of 21 projects in the finals - three in each of the seven categories.
• There will be only one winner in each category. The seven winners will be announced during a special BBC One television programme transmitted later in the year.

Further information
Please contact Isabel Allanwood at The National Lottery Promotions Awards on 020 7211 3898 or isabel.allanwood@lotterygoodcauses.org.uk.