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National Lottery funding brings Resilience to Tyne Rivers Trust

National Lottery funding brings Resilience to Tyne Rivers Trust

In December, Tyne Rivers Trust was awarded £50,900 of National Lottery funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF) Resilience programme to build the Trust and make it a more robust and resilient organisation. The money, raised by National Lottery players, will be used to make the Trust stronger by building up the skillset of staff members and trustees, working with business and marketing consultants, creating a new website and ensuring that we can address a wide range of challenges in an increasingly efficient and effective manner.

Although the Trust is only part way through the funding period, staff have been trained in a huge variety of skills including project management, first aid, flood modelling, training in freshwater pearl mussel surveys, GIS and electrofishing training. The Trust is now also seeking ISO accreditation for quality, safety and environmental management. As a result of all these benefits, it is now able to bid for a range of environmental improvement projects that ensure the long-term future of the Trust, as well as the enduring health of the River Tyne.

The funding has financed the Trust to work with two experts, Allison Thompson from Ashmore Consulting who is advising on our business structure and development, and Atul Srivastava from Fundraising Consultants who is working on a future strategy for funding and publicity. Being more widely known and developing better messages will increase opportunities for fundraising and improve understanding of the work the Trust does.

Susan Mackirdy Director of Tyne Rivers Trust, said “The Resilience funding will move Tyne Rivers Trust forward into a position where we are able to bid for more funding, including from HLF, with the in-house expertise to carry out commercial contracts to restore rivers, mitigate for fish obstructions and develop wetlands. I am extremely excited about the future of the Tyne and its communities and the bigger role that Tyne Rivers Trust will now be able to play thanks to National Lottery players.”