Almost £65 million of vital National Lottery funding has gone to communities across England between September and November 2021 to support them as they recover from the pandemic, helping them to build back stronger into the New Year and beyond.

The life-enhancing sum, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, has been awarded to over 2,000 community groups and will support communities as they continue rebuilding after two incredibly challenging years.

Stockton and District Advice and Information Service (SDAIS) is one of the organisations that has benefitted from this funding. The Service is the Citizens Advice Bureau for the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, and the funding from the National Lottery Community Fund will enable SDAIS to recruit and train more volunteer advisers and improve welfare advice and support for people with mental ill health.

SDAIS Manager, Ian Bartlett said, "I would really like to thank all the players of the National Lottery because this funding comes from them. We have always been busy helping people with a wide range of welfare problems, and COVID has just meant even more problems for people to deal with. This support from the National Lottery will mean we can give welfare advice to more people over the next two years."