Thanet is through to the second round of an application for between £2million and £6million of Big Lottery funding.

The council’s Community Development Team has been working with partners from the voluntary, community, private and creative sectors to secure between £2-6 million of Big Lottery funding. This is part of the national Fulfilling Lives: Ageing Better programme which will be delivered between 2014 and 2020 and aims to improve the lives of older people.

Thanet District Council submitted an expression of interest for funding with organisations including Age UK, APEK, Citizens Advice Bureau, CASE Kent, Cummins Power Generation, Social Enterprise Kent, Turner Contemporary, Thanet Community Networks and Thanet Volunteer Bureau.

Social Enterprise Kent (SEK), which will lead Thanet in its bid to secure the funding, will submit an initial partnership development funding application to the Big Lottery Fund this month.

As part of this bid, Thanet will be able to request up to £20,000 to develop a Vision and Strategy. This will outline what Thanet’s older people do not have, what they would like and how this could be delivered.

The Vision and Strategy will be submitted to the Big Lottery in April 2014.

Listening events are already taking place with older people and those working with older people to help develop the Vision and Strategy.

Cllr Iris Johnston, cabinet member for community services said: “Ageing Better is a fantastic opportunity for us to make a huge difference to the lives of Thanet’s older people.

“Thank you to everyone involved for getting Thanet successfully to this stage.”

More details can be found at http://tinyurl.com/clcqtvk