COMMUNITY groups in Blackburn and Darwen have benefitted from more than £100,000 worth of funding over six months, with the help of Blackburn with Darwen Community and Voluntary Service (CVS).

CVS works with local groups to help people volunteer and help organisations to develop volunteering opportunities.

The organisation also helps groups to access grant funding opportunities from a variety of sources including the European Union, the National Lottery, and charitable trusts.

Last year CVS helped groups in Blackburn and Darwen to access more than £1million from the Big Lottery Fund.

CVS also manages and distributes small grants to local groups.

In 14 years the organisation has distributed more than £2.7million locally, and in the past six months alone more than 50 grants, amounting to more than £100,000, have been given out to a wide range of organisations.

The groups that CVS supports are very diverse, ranging from luncheon clubs, to road safety initiatives, to carers' support groups.

Among the projects supported by CVS recently were a Gujarati Writers Association, which received £800 to host a literature and poetry event to combat loneliness and social isolation.

The Lifeline Project received a grant of £4,375 to support a 13 to 17-year-old girls' group, for teenagers at risk of developing, or already demonstrating, problematic alcohol use.

And the Opportunity Sports Foundation received £4,095 to work in Shadsworth creating community sports coaches, to help improve the employability of participants and the health of people in the local area.

Paul Mason took over as chairman of the CVS in July.

The 62-year-old, who lives in Blackburn with his wife, worked in local government for many years before retiring.

He said: "We help individuals and communities to be more involved in shaping their own futures.

"We provide support and advice to voluntary organisations and anyone wanting to set up a charity.

"It's becoming more and more important for the voluntary sector to assume some of the roles traditionally played by local councils.

"Although it's important now, over the next decades the role of the community sector is becoming more important, and more learned about by the general public."

For information call 01254 583957, or attend the CVS AGM from 12noon on Tuesday, December 16, at Blackburn's Boulevard Centre.