A project to encourage a more accessible arts sector for deaf and hard-of-hearing people and Wales’s first LGBTQ+ football club are the two Cardiff based projects hoping to be crowned Project of the Year in the 2023 National Lottery Awards. The two Cardiff projects, Hear We Are and Cardiff Dragons FC, beat stiff competition from 3,780 organisations to reach the public voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards, which celebrates the inspirational projects and people who do extraordinary things with the help of National Lottery funding. There are 17 shortlisted finalists from across the UK, all of which will compete in a four-week public vote from 11th September to 9th October to be named the National Lottery Project of the Year. Winners will receive £5,000 for their project and a National Lottery Awards trophy. Hear We Are is a National Lottery funded deaf-led project exploring the perspectives of deaf and hard-of-hearing people, particularly those working in or excluded from the creative sector. Since it began in February 2021, the project has worked to establish a network of safe spaces for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to meet, share experiences and test out creative ideas. The other Cardiff project hoping to score with the public is Cardiff Dragons FC, Wales’s first LGBTQ+ soccer club. Founded in 2008, the club is home to three teams. Its mixed gender 11-a-side team which plays nationally in the Gay Football Supporters Network, a seven-a-side ‘Dragons Rock’ team is made up of women, transgender and non-binary people who compete in Bristol and Cardiff casual leagues and five-a-side mixed gender team which takes part in a league made up of non-LGBTQ+ teams. Jonathan Tuchner, from The National Lottery, said: “We’re so pleased to have received so many nominations highlighting the excellent work that National Lottery-funded projects are doing up and down the UK. It’s no secret that times are tough, so it’s great to see so many people and projects dedicating so much time and energy into giving something back to their communities. “Hear We Are and the Cardiff Dragons are making an incredible impact in their local community and they thoroughly deserve to be in the finals of the National Lottery Awards Project of the Year 2023. With your support, one of them could be a winner.” To vote for Hear We Are or the Cardiff Dragons please go to lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards. Or simply use their specific hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) #NLAHearWeAre or #NLADragons. Voting runs until 12pm on 9th October.
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