Press Release - Ascendance Celebrates
March 14, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
Ascendance celebrates after receiving £195,992.00 in National Lottery funding
Ascendance based in Leeds and Bradford is celebrating after being awarded £195,992.00 over 3 years in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
Ascendance will use their funding to build on the success, strengths and learnings of their existing digital activity and enable them to innovate further within the dance and digital arena. Their project, ‘No One Left Behind’ aims to engage more people with neurodisabilities (such as Parkinson’s and MS) - across a variety of settings - and address the growing digital divide the older community is facing, especially in areas with little or no in-person provision.
This new National Lottery funding will support a series of existing and new initiatives including zoom classes, digital training for the older community, outreach programmes and a Digital Dance, Arts and Wellbeing festival. Activity will start in April 2023 and information and updates will be released online, via social media and via email about how to get involved.
Ascendance is also extremely grateful to its partners Parkinson’s UK, 100% Digital Leeds, Marie Curie Hospice, Leeds Active and Leeds Care Delivery Service for their support of No One Left Behind.
Rachel Wesson, Ascendance Artistic Director said: "We are absolutely delighted with this grant, which brings stability to our charity, enabling us to reach more people with uplifting and fun dance provision for people with Neurodisabilities, enhancing the health & wellbeing of people who face mental and physical difficulties."
National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes a share of this to projects to support people and communities to prosper and thrive.
To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk
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Press Contact
Rachel Wesson, rachel.wesson@ascendance.org.uk
Additional Images are available upon request.
Notes to Editors:
About Ascendance
Ascendance is a charity working in the Dance for Health sector across Leeds, Bradford and Yorkshire, who have become a regional flagship for their Dance with Parkinson’s programme. Ascendance’s mission is to provide exercise, creative and performance opportunities for individuals with neurodisabilities and those over 55, improving physical and mental wellbeing, coordination, balance and social cohesion. They work hard to provide a caring and crucial service to their community through weekly classes, outreach projects and a performance company.
Since 2017, Ascendance has focused its community and participatory work on individuals with neurological conditions (such as Parkinson’s and MS), many of whom have seen access to supportive therapies, such as physiotherapy reduced, and their social networks diminished through isolation and lack of provision. Ascendance’s activities fill a vital gap in neurological supportive services by developing and delivering a dance session framework that facilitates creativity, expression and is driven by participant needs/interests (via our participant steering group), underpinned by scientific research and that complements and - in some places – replaces oversubscribed traditional therapies, offering an alternative form of health service.
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About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest funder of community activity in the UK – we support people and communities to prosper and thrive.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
Our funding has a positive impact and makes a difference to people’s lives. We support projects focussed on things that matter, including economic prosperity, employment, young people, mental health, loneliness and helping the UK reach NET Zero by 2050.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £43 billion has been raised for good causes. National Lottery funding has been used to support over 635,000 projects - 255 projects per postcode area.