People urged to support Redcar and Cleveland community lottery
The aim's to raise funds for "good causes" in the community
People are being urged to support the new Redcar and Cleveland Community Lottery.
It's been created by the area's Voluntary Development Agency and Tees Valley Rural Action.
The aim's to raise funds for "good causes" in the community with supporters being able to choose who they want to donate the money to.
Julie Thornton is from Tees Valley Rural Action and she said: "Fundraising is part and parcel of any community activity; whether it be a school parent group, a registered charity that's delivering a food bank, any community group that's struggling to raise funds. So we were trying to think of a way that we'd be able to support those community groups raise funds for themselves.
"It's alright going to the large grants, organisations, or the big organisations that can support them with grant funding, but that's time consuming and it's also lots of hoops to jump through to be able to get those grant funding.
"If you've ever done a blind card, a raffle or you're hosting community coffee mornings, this is another easy way for all of those people who turn around and say to you 'I wish I had known that was on, I would've got a ticket.' So this is a different way of being able to raise funds for your local community group.
"So community groups can raise funds through the community lottery and it's not restricted, so it could be a food bank needs extra supplies, it could be that a scout would like to do an outing. It's very much what your group needs, rather than somebody telling you what you can spend your funding on."