North Kensington community vote to award local projects £200k

Published: Monday 13 January 2020

Decision Day group shot.jpg

A range of projects to support community-led recovery in North Kensington were allocated £200k following the Grenfell Projects Fund Decision Day at Kensington Aldridge Academy (KAA) on Saturday (11 January).

We received 88 project ideas across six outcomes from organisations, individuals and new collectives. Around 150 residents who had registered prior to the event, got the chance to decide which projects in Outcome One – wellbeing  for children, young people or adults and Outcome Two – Educational opportunities to increase skills, knowledge, enterprise and qualifications - were allocated the money.

The successful projects in Outcome One - Wellbeing for children, young people or adults - who shared the £100k funding were:

  • Minds United Football Club who will provide football sessions for adults in the local comunity who have mental health issues/substance misuse issues following the Grenfell tragedy.
  • Swimunity who will offer free swimming workshops to children aged six to 12 years old, mixed adults and women only.
  • 1 Utd who will create a safe, informal and open access space for young people aged 17 to 25 years old to provide training and help them find solutions to day-to-day issues.
  • Lancaster West Children's Network who will set up a community Take and Play Club to deliver activities and provide resources that support children's development and improve their wellbeing through play.
  • Fit for Life Youth CIC which is a boxing and fitness programme within 11 schools and colleges across north Kensington.
  • Youth Action Alliance: More than a Woman which is a girls only youth club which promotes life skills, wellbeing and female empowerment. This funding will allow them to build on the work they currently deliver.
  • Youth Action Alliance: Stable Way Holidays who will deliver a programme of offsite activities for up to 40 travellers aged between six and 16 years old which will offer support to help them stay in school, enrol in college and get into work.
  • Progressay who will set up an education and enterprise project that will provide support and wellbeing for young people through a support group
  • Cuban Boxing Academy (part funded) who will offer sessions and (where required) therapy in a family, integration and social inclusion focused syllabus.

The successful projects in Outcome Two - Educational opportunities to increase skills, knowledge, enterprise and qualifications - who shared the £100k funding were:

  • Society for Young Artists who will engage young people to translate their art into products they can sell through a quarterly pop-up shop
  • Grenfell Community Workshop who will use the skills of retired and unemployed technicians and engineers to volunteer to repair and test electrical goods giving them a sense of purpose and self-worth as well as reducing isolation.
  • Hear Women who will support and empower local women and their children. The project will include cook and talk sessions, how to set up your own enterprise and Mother and Child Saturday Club.
  • Fit for Life Youth who will offer six local individuals training on how to deliver boxing and fitness sessions as part of the schools and colleges project plus weekend sessions.
  • Nova New Opportunities who will include a programme of activities including events, talks, discussions and workshops, a Legacy Project to allow young people who volunteer to get out of the area and heal and grow as well as running dialogue and life skills workshops.
  • Azza Supplementary School who will deliver a safe and productive environment for the community while delivering maths, English and sports activities
  • Kids on the Green who will deliver a mobile multi-arts package to the community including aerial circus, mobile music studio and radio podcasting
  • Polaris Aquatic Training (part funded) who will provide free swimming lessons for families with multiple siblings/disabilities

The Grenfell Projects Fund is a new grants programme which has made £600k available for this year (2019/20) to support communities affected by the Grenfell tragedy.

There will be a further Decision Day to decide which projects in the remaining four outcomes receive the money.  The remaining outcomes that the community will vote on are:

  • Social and cultural events that bring communities together and provide information to increase connections across the community including initiatives to reduce isolation for older peopleCommunity safety that increases the safety of everyone
  • Activities for young people
  • Food growing/greening and food-based activities that increase communities coming together and enhances the local environment

We will be consulting with those who submitted project ideas and the local community about a date to ensure as many people as possible can attend. Please keep an eye on our website and on our social media feeds for updates.

Cllr Anne Cyron, Lead Member for Communities, said: “Today we have allocated £200k in funding for local community projects and this has been decided on by the community. Everybody is feeling excited by the creativity and inspiration that people have brought to this programme and it’s great to see decisions in the hands of the people.

“This fund is all about supporting the recovery and therefore it’s completely right that people should be able to make the decision about how they want the money spent and what projects they want to see supported in their community.

“We will be announcing soon how the community will decide Outcomes three to six and for those who didn’t get funded, we will be looking at ways to support those projects. I want to thank the community for attending the Decision Day and for taking the time to vote on so many fantastic projects. We hope as many of you as possible will be back to support the projects in the other outcomes.”