Published: Wednesday 11 March 2020
Kensington and Chelsea Council has allocated an additional £100k to support a number of projects which were initially unsuccessful in receiving funding as part of the Grenfell Projects Fund earlier this year.
The Grenfell Projects Fund is a new grants programme which initially made £600k available for this year to support communities affected by the Grenfell tragedy.
Local organisations, residents’ associations and new and existing groups in the North Kensington area applied for grants to deliver priority projects that contribute to the ongoing recovery of local communities.
Organisations presented their project ideas at two Decision Days held earlier this year. Residents voted on those they wanted to support across six outcomes, with £100k available for each outcome. Of the 88 projects, 47 were fully funded with three receiving partial funding.
This latest announcement comes after Cllr Anne Cyron, Lead Member for Communities, pledged at both Decision Days to do everything she could to support those projects who were unsuccessful in receiving funding.
Cllr Cyron said:
“We were overwhelmed by the number of organisations who expressed an interest in funding from the Grenfell Projects Fund. The quality of the projects was so exceptional that it was a shame some narrowly missed out on funding.
"This is why we've made this additional money available so that further projects can benefit the North Kensington community.
"We are also committed to helping those unsuccessful projects and are talking to them about how they can benefit from other funding sources as well as the new Community Leadership Programme we hope to launch later this month. We have also established a monthly networking partnership for these organisations to share ideas and support."
The recipients of the additional funding, based on residents’ votes from the Decision Days, are:
Outcome one (Wellbeing for children, young people or adults)
- Cuban Boxing Academy (originally partially funded) will offer sessions and (where required) therapy in a family, integration and social inclusion focused syllabus.
- Walk and Cycle London will teach cycling to non-cyclists in North Kensington.
- Solidarity Sports will provide additional mentoring, skills and employability skills to young volunteers who are supporting other young people in the area.
- Notting Hill Therapy will be partially funded to deliver community and one-to-one therapy sessions in the community.
Outcome two (Educational opportunities to increase skills, knowledge, enterprise and qualifications)
- Polaris Aquatic Training (originally part funded) will provide free swimming lessons for families with multiple siblings/disabilities.
- Financial Harmony will deliver a programme of money masterclasses to young people aged 14 to 16 and a programme of financial management to adults aged over 19
- Acava will deliver a creative afterschool club with visits to professional galleries with artists and hold an exhibition of the work created over the year.
- Teit Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahedo Supplementary School will support children to maintain and protect their heritage language through activities in the local area.
- Project Sankofa will deliver an innovative 10-week programme for women to inspire and achieve their ambitions through self-expressions and finding your own voice.
- Gheez Rite Community Association will be partially funded to offer a series of workshops of Teaching Recovery Techniques aimed at children.
Kensington and Chelsea Council has already met with residents leading the successful projects to talk about the next steps and to work with them to ensure they are ready to receive their funding by the end of March 2020.
This work includes safeguarding checks to protect vulnerable residents and helping the project leads to identify which workshops and sessions on the Community Leadership Programme will be most helpful to them running and measuring their projects.
Read more about the Grenfell Projects Fund and the successful projects at https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/grenfell-response-and-recovery/our-progress-grenfell-recovery/grenfell-projects-fund