Our First year in focus

youth

Empowerment: Delivering activities that reach young people who are not being reached by existing activities that largely focus on crime or sport – e.g. using open space, parks, theatre, etc

Funded youth projects through our Small Grants Scheme (grants up to £5000), including:

  • Young W12 – this is our world – weekly Performing Arts and Production workshops.
  • West London Zine – an online news magazine sharing stories in the local community.
  • Switch Sports UK – free holiday activities.
 

Funded start-up youth projects through our Community Chest (grants up to £500):

  • Girls Create a Vibe – empowering young women in the community aged 11-16 using creativity.
  • White City Youth Club – engaging young people in activities during the summer.
  • Lyric Summer Holiday Project – digital drama programmes to engage young people and scholarships for W12 young people.
  • Shaun Powerz – DJ and MC project.
 
Parents and families: Through the small grants scheme and Community Chest, we also funded projects focussed on supporting parents and families to understand and deal with the challenges children and young people faced due to Covid-19:
  • Al -Ansar Young People’s club – user feedback demonstrates how the project was helping to improve relationships between parents and young people.
  • Switch Lockdown Family Quiz – zoom quizzes and when possible, sessions in the park. This enabled more participants with English as an additional language to get involved and encouraged other family members to join in.
  • Midaye’s Elevate White City Family Support Project – online group support for BME children aged 7 to 16 – tutoring, homework support and discussions on relevant topics.
  • Bubblesqueakeat CIC – weekly online creative workshop for families. Materials were delivered to participants homes.

health

Community based solutions for health and wellbeing: Help the whole community better access and make better use of existing mental health services. Also, providing community-based solutions for health and wellbeing that are culturally specific and based on the demographic make-up of the community. Directly commissioning services that meet identified need in the community:

  • we commissioned onHand to facilitate 1,000 ‘missions/tasks’ by local volunteers in the W12 area to support vulnerable residents and ensure essential support is available during the second and third lockdown. This service will also begin to support the vaccination programme in White City by supporting vulnerable older residents to their vaccination appointments when requested.
  • the W12Together Money Advice Service in partnership with H&F Citizens Advice service to support financially stressed residents.

Funded projects through the Small Grants Scheme (up to £5000) that focus on health and wellbeing projects, that aim to improve wellbeing and improve mental health, through projects and initiatives focussed on improving mental and emotional wellbeing, including reducing isolation and loneliness. The small grants projects were:

  • RENA Initiative’s The WoWC Create and Connect Project is an 8-week art/painting and social/befriending programme for up to 60 local women. The project generates enjoyment, creativity, connection, vitality, empowerment and community while providing practical support to improve mental health and wellbeing.
  • Ready Tech Go – the ‘Gift of Connection’ project that combats our hyperlocal digital divide by providing 30 or more vulnerable, isolated or otherwise in-need older people in W12 with technological connection and support that can help change their lives.
  • West London Welcome – a free drop-in centre for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants looking for support and relief from destitution. Our grant sustained a weekly foodbank during the first lockdown.

Engagement with the Mutual Aid Groups (MAGs) in meetings and the WhatsApp groups. Leaflet and poster created with MAGs and Wormholt Residents Association promoting support available and distributed around Wormholt & White City (translated into top 3 languages – Somali, Arabic and Polish).

Culturally specific health promotion: During the first lockdown we focussed our small grants on projects that supported the delivery of essential supplies, provided social interaction/befriending schemes, increasing the capacity and reach of volunteers and strengthened services that are culturally specific. The small grants projects were:

  • Nubian Life Rafiki Project – providing nutritional and culturally specific meals and telephone befriending to BAME communities disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. Additionally, for the second round they will introduce a pop-up cafe on Saturdays attached to the community garden so residents can benefit from the garden and re-engage with each other within a local, safe and therapeutic space.
  • Eritrean Social Community – supporting the most vulnerable members of the Eritrean community. Project All Together aimed to enhance the practical and emotional support.
  • Sudanese Nubian Association – support project delivering food to households of Sudanese community members who are isolated and vulnerable.

covid-19

Food Bank: Through a one-off grant of £10,000 we supported the Hammersmith & Fulham foodbank in achieving their primary objective – the prevention or relief of poverty in and around H&F. Demand for the food bank increased drastically due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our funding helped them to meet the surge in urgent, short-term local need during this time. Between 1st April and 18th June 2020

Citizens advice: Partnering with Hammersmith & Fulham Citizens Advice we provided specialist money advice services to residents, on debt and finance, as well as support to access the emergency benefits made available by government. The new service started on 18th May, with one day dedicated to Wormholt and White City residents and increased to 3 days from 1st September due to demand