Community groups scoop the jackpot

IT’S Up2us . . . (from the left) Steph Gill and Dave Sykes, both from the partnership group which runs Big Local Oldham, and Fiona Jones, an administrator at the project

AN innovative project is helping Oldham communities reinvigorate their neighbourhoods.

Up2us, part of Big Local Oldham’s £1 million programme to improve three neighbourhoods over 10 years, is letting local people decide where the money should go.

As part of the project, Greenacres, Clarksfield and Littlemoor residents gathered to decide how to split £15,000.

Big Local Oldham organisers staged a “decision event”, so groups could stake their claim for up to £1,000 from the fund, which comes from the Big Lottery Fund.

Three-minute presentations were given by 24 groups, with residents able to cast their votes for the recipients.

Among the successful groups were Men Behaving Dadly, the Greenacres Community Centre-based organisation which provides activities for male carers and their children.

Greenacres-based Infinity Dance Studios received £1,000 to stage confidence-building dance classes for four to 16-year-old boys.

Spotlight Theatre Group will invest its £1,000 in a stage curtain for its theatre space at East Oldham Methodist Church.