FEMALE ex-offenders are among those who will benefit from millions of pounds of lottery cash given to Gwent community projects.

The 300 offenders from Gwent and around Wales will receive support to face major changes and long-term challenges in their lives when they are released from prison following the Big Lottery grant of £871,707.

The five-year project, called Going Home, will be run by Llanover-based charity Gibran Ltd.

The project will use peer mentors, who are ex-offenders themselves, to help other women acquire the life skills they need to move out of chaotic lifestyles into volunteering, training and employment.

Gill Hurley, MD of Gibran UK, devised the project, said: "Women who complete their sentence and leave prison face a number of problems, not all of them obvious ones.

They may come from troubled or chaotic backgrounds. But typically they also have low self-esteem, aren't good at communicating, and generally lack some of the life skills the rest of us take for granted."

Another project helping Gwent residents is the Scarman Trust, which received a grant for nearly £1 million from the Big Lottery Stepping Stones fund.

The Trust's 'Switched On' project will support black and ethnic minority groups in Pill and Victoria, as well as other communities in South east Wales.

Homeless and newly arrived members of the community will receive basic skills training to help them integrate into local communities.

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People will also splash £303,180 on the "Young Adult Transitions" project, which will help young deaf and hard of hearing adults throughout South East Wales gain employment.