Communities across the South East are set to benefit from more than £19.2 million after the Big Lottery Fund and EU have joined forces.

The Big Lottery Fund is matching funds from the European Social Fund (ESF) 2014-2020 to provide joint investment in 61 local projects tackling poverty, promoting social inclusion and boosting local economies.

Projects will provide learning and training opportunities for people to increase their confidence and learn new skills that will put them on the path to employment. Projects are designed to help people to overcome a huge range of challenges in their lives and communities. For example, projects will provide specialist support to people living in a rural, isolated area, people who are homeless, have mental health issues, are living with a disability or overcoming addiction issues.

The Big Lottery Fund is working with local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and their decision-making committees across England who have identified projects that best meet local need and priorities. From today organisations will be able to apply for funding to deliver these projects, including voluntary, community and social enterprise groups, who have historically found it hard to apply for and manage EU funding.

Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund said: “Working with local enterprise partnerships across the South East, these projects will enable people to overcome challenges and improve their long-term job prospects. This valuable partnership will create new opportunities for groups to focus on issues specific to their local communities.”

The 61 projects announced today across England with a total of more than £132.6 million available, represent the second round of this funding and involve 18 LEP areas. This takes the total number of LEP areas with projects to 38. Each LEP has identified the issues challenging their communities and the opportunity that funding can bring to address them.

Projects open for applications today include:

One project in Solent LEP area will provide intensive support to people facing complex or multiple barriers to employment including mental or physical health issues, loss of confidence and learning difficulties. The project will comprise three main elements - pre-employment support and employability training; a subsidised part-time job for up to six months alongside ongoing caseworker support and intensive post-placement support to help secure long-term employment.

Twelve projects in the South East LEP area, six covering the north of the LEP area and six covering the south. All the projects will provide intensive targeted support to specific groups to help them into sustainable volunteering, education, training or employment. Projects will be tailored to specifically help: disadvantaged people with long term physical health issues or disabilities, people with mental health conditions, carers, older people, lone parents and people who have difficulty sustaining employment for example due to homelessness.

In Buckinghamshire Thames Valley LEP area one project will provide an outreach service supporting those people furthest from the labour market to overcome barriers to move towards employment. The project will seek to build on existing partnerships to encourage employers in the area to recruit from their local communities.

In Oxfordshire LEP area, two projects will work with young people across the area including more rural communities, with specialist provision for people in Oxford City and Banbury. One project will support young people aged 15 to 17 at risk of ending up not in education, employment or training and those who have recently found themselves in this position. The second project will work with young people aged 17 to 19 to support them back into training, education or employment.

Potential applicants with questions about the stage one application process should view the FAQs available here https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/bbofaq. The closing date for applications is 12 noon 30 November 2015.

A small number of further funding opportunities are expected in early 2016. To be kept informed on the latest Building Better Opportunities news register your interest on our website at www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/esf.