This year marks 25 years since the first draw of The National Lottery. In that time over £40 billion has been given out to good causes, and over half a million (565,000) projects have benefited from National Lottery awards that change lives every day.

Since 2000 Roundabout is very grateful to have received a staggering £678,844.00 from the National Lottery. The lottery grants have helped us expand, helped us meet identified needs we weren’t able to fund in other ways, and helped us facilitate work with new groups and in new boroughs and settings. 

The first grant was back in 2000, when the lottery funder was called the National Lottery Charities Board. As part of the development for Roundabout, outlined in our Business Plan for the period, we applied for and were awarded a three year grant to open a North London office. We were even featured in a promotional video about how to make a successful application. Deb and Lynn were filmed getting the result of the application.

We applied for a further three years of continuation funding and were successful again, giving the North London office a really good start.

In 2011, we had a breakthrough with the Big Lottery Fund with four years of funding for work with vulnerable adults – 2 projects a year with adults with learning disabilities and 4 projects a year with older adults. The grants came to a whopping total of £345,000 over the four years.

Most recently, in 2019, we were successful in making another multi-project/multi-year application, for work in schools. This is involving 4 projects a year, in different schools each year, plus six months for evaluation and dissemination. The grant represents another breakthrough, with the acceptance that dramatherapy is not part of the statutory provision and that the work can take place in schools during the school day.

In addition, we have had a number of grants from Awards for All and a  grant, over 3 years, from the Young People’s Fund, for anti-bullying work.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the lottery players and the National Lottery for 25 year of changed lives from everyone at Roundabout. Happy Birthday!