From struggles to success: The National Lottery funded project helping marginalised women into work

4th April 2025

Other than being wondrous women in history, what links Florence Nightingale’s nursing legacy to Ada Lovelace’s computer pioneering, and Emmeline Pankhurst’s actions to win women the vote?

Their stories and legacies (and home in Emmeline’s case) are connected by National Lottery funding. They feature among over 25,000 grants to people, projects, and places that educate and empower, safeguard and celebrate women and girls.

Reflecting back across the recent Women's History Month, it’s timely to celebrate over £1.5 billion that has funded a huge mix of people and their activities, buildings and facilities like women’s changing rooms, throughout the UK.

Projects like SWEET, led by Paddington Development Trust (PDT), delivered alongside a partnership of local organisations. Originally run for women only, SWEET stood for ‘Supporting Women into Employment, Enterprise and Training’. SWEET 1 was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) 2016-2023. A successor project SWEET 2 (also funded by TNLCF) began in 2024-25.

SWEET Celebration — Staff from PDT and partner organisations, and guests, at the SWEET 1 wrap-up event in 2023. (Image courtesy of PDT)

SWEET was one part of a national programme of funding that took gender equality to heart – it was a mandatory reporting element for the continuation of a project’s funding instalments. Nationally, over 89,000 women were supported to ‘hard results’ of jobs, training, education. (How many is that? Enough women to fill nearly 18 Millennium Domes or, given its change of use, to fill five O2 Arena venues).

During SWEET 1 (2016-2023) support was tailored to women only and personalised to each woman’s needs. These were women who were unemployed, or economically inactive (e.g. carers), and farthest from work, facing multiple barriers. Fortunately, the funding was substantial and ‘multi-annual’. That provided key benefits as PDT’s Deputy CEO, Ola Badamosi highlights: “It allowed us time with the clients.”

Time is always welcomed by PDT’s Neisha Diaz in her Employment Advisor role. Neisha says that working with women farthest from work is about being “face-to-face, day-by-day. Removing one barrier at a time.”

SWEET 1’s project data showed that it can take over a year for someone facing multiple barriers, perhaps using English as their second, third or fourth language, to make progress. Flexibility is key, as Neisha comments: “ We talk to women while sewing, or doing something not normally done on progression-based projects.”

Sustainability workshop — A sustainability workshop - one of many different workshops within SWEET. (Image courtesy of PDT)

Data from the SWEET project is impressive. Nearly 1500 of the 89,000 women nationally were supported in PDT’s London-based project. Of PDT’s women 90% (1300) self-identified a diverse ethnicity or ethnic minority; 226 declared disabilities while 214 were aged over 50. One-third (527) achieved a so-called ‘hard result’ of a job, or training or moving on to education. The remainder, and many more beyond those 1500 women who were not counted due to exiting the programme of support for various reasons, gained ‘softer outcomes’, building confidence, basic language or IT and so on.

A safeguarding workshop on Claire's Law. (Image courtesy of PDT)

Mihaela Truica, Senior Programme Officer working on evaluation among other areas offers a deeper layer of detail: “An impact that’s not measured is the sense of community. This goes beyond the life of the project. It’s how women meet up, and support, together. For instance, single mums.”

Motherhood often brings untold extra demands and duties, so how did SWEET 1 – and now how does SWEET 2 – support? “ There are a lot of mums,” Mihaela confirms. “One group is for mums who have children with special needs. They support each other a lot. SWEET is not just about getting the next job or training, it’s also about ways people develop, building trust together. It’s holistic.”

Neisha adds that “covering childcare costs has been the most impactful part of SWEET, especially for mothers of younger children. We’ve done four- or six-hour courses in one sitting, affording several creche members to stay on site. And there’s been the flexibility to do workshops between 10am and 2pm, so that mums with school-aged children could be involved.”

Likewise, Neisha highlights the planning and costs involved when mums are ready to interview for jobs. “A job interview, or a work trial, can be a one-off day. Trying to identify an Ofsted registered childcare provider for that is almost impossible. We were able to do that.”

Andrea Audain, PDT’s Head of Programme Support, adds: “Where we've delivered other projects and haven't had the ability to provide childcare we see the difference. It becomes impossible for women to sustain engagement.”

IWD the team — Some of PDT's SWEET staff. (Image courtesy of PDT. Front row: Neisha stands on the right-hand end, Mihaela stands second right; Back row: Ola stands second from the right, with Andrea third from the right).

The successor project, SWEET 2, achieved its funding half-way through 2024, and Neisha has seen early successes: “Women have returned in a better state than in the beginning. During SWEET 1 maybe they developed language, IT, soft skills and some accredited training. Many go on to volunteering. Some to work. Now SWEET 2 is running, some women without work are back. A couple have gotten jobs already. It's fantastic.”

Andrea reflects on the big picture: “The SWEET project allows us to do what we do, in the way that matters. We've seen really good results. But it's become personal. We enjoy the journey that the women are taking and where they get to. That may not necessarily be a job, but you still see development. It's really rewarding.”

In summing up, Deputy CEO Ola offers some telling words: “The passion in which we deliver these projects comes through, because we all have lived experience. We all have a story to tell. We engage these women because we are women. We tell our stories and it brings hope. We say: ‘it's not the end of your journey. This is not the end of your story’."

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Likewise, it's not the end of The National Lottery's story in supporting women.

Since 1995, a vast range of women have been funded or have benefitted from various impacts. Farmers, educators, mums, astronomers, lesbians, environmentalists, sports and celebrity stars... these and many others sparkle among more than 25,000 relevant grants so far. For instance, Scarlett Johansson’s role in ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ (2003) happened after two grants from the British Film Institute, one of the 12 National Lottery distributors...