A CASH boost of more than £400,000 has been given to organisations in West Devon by the Big Lottery Fund.

West Devon projects have received the large sum of money as part of a bigger pot of £1.5-million awarded in Devon by the National Lottery.

Some of the projects include setting up a memory café, delivering training, village improvements and youth club sessions.

The second highest amount awarded in Devon was to Homestart South and West Devon — a charity which gives support to families across West Devon and South Devon.

The charity was awarded a grant of £207,433 from the Big Lottery Fund to help continue its work for the next two years.

Chief executive of Homestart Andrea Chandler said they were pleased to have received the funding — the full amount they requested in their application.

‘The grant gives us the majority of the funding we need to evolve our services for the next two years,’ she said. ‘We receive over 250 referrals for our volunteer family support service every year.

‘Families with a child under 12 receive weekly visits from a peer mentoring volunteer. Families are referred for a number of reasons but poor mental health and isolation are the most common factors, especially in rural communities.’

Andrea said that around 90% of the families they’ve supported had reported improvement in self-esteem, mental health, feeling of isolation and the ability to access local families and services.

‘Every year we receive more referrals than we can support and it can be particularly difficult reaching families in remote areas,’ she said. ‘We also find that parents with poor mental health sometimes need more flexible support. This grant will enable us to expand and introduce new ways of supporting; primarily support for parents via text, audio or video chat. Our service has provided a vital life line to families, which is becoming more and more necessary as other services shrink.’

Homestart is recruiting for local volunteers for its next training courses in January.

Another large sum — £188,684 — was awarded to West Devon Youth Partnership for its Young People’s Voices project. The project delivers varying activities aimed at young people, including music, art, drama, summer holiday and weekend activities. The project will support people aged ten to 19 who are disadvantaged socially, suffer social exclusion, isolation or have physical or special educational needs.

Also benefiting from funding is Buckland Monachorum Village Hall, which received £9,932 to buy planters, play equipment and storage sheds for outside the village hall, as well as improve the facilities for community activities and events, and Horrabridge Youth Club, which received £8,868 to deliver extra youth sessions to meet increased demand and improve their community space.