Lottery funding awarded to help people with a learning disability find love in Lancashire and Greater Manchester

Spring into Action, based in Accrington, has received a grant of £182,681, from the Reaching Communities Fund, to develop Meet ‘N’ Match - a friendship and dating agency for adults with a learning disability and/or autism.

The organisation, which has been running since 2012, took over the Meet N Match project in June 2018, after founding organisation The U Night Group felt Spring into Action was more able to develop and grow it, while they concentrate on developing relationship training.

Lucy Hamlin, director of Spring into Action and Project Coordinator of Meet N Match, said: “This grant will help us expand our work further across Lancashire and also develop into the

Greater Manchester area. I have been working on the project alongside The U Night Group for the past three years in Lancashire, people in the Greater Manchester area have been

asking us for the last 12 months to develop into that area. I’m so grateful that the National Lottery Community Fund understood what we are trying to achieve and are supporting the

development of the project over the next three years”

The Meet N Match project has been running since 2016, over that time they have engaged with approximately 750 people who have attended their events and had opportunities to

meet new people. This funding boost, means that for the next three years they are able to further develop and enable people with a learning disability to meet new people and

potentially find love.