Derwent London is delighted to announce the first year of projects to receive funding as part of its community funding programme in Tech Belt*. The Group confirms that six successful recipients will share a total of c.£25,000.
The projects chosen for this year are:
- All Change Arts - ‘Meaning to Say’ creative project for people with mental health problems, including Word Festival event in June 2017
- The Parent House - ‘Parent to Parent Outreach’ training programme for parent volunteers to encourage use of drop-in services offering mentoring, work placements and crèche
- Theatre Centre - ‘Our Place’ community drama programme for young people, with performance at Shoreditch Town Hall
- St Luke’s Parochial Trust - ‘Three Community Events’: Older people celebration in October, Christmas Fayre and a Christmas Day Lunch
- St Hilda’s East, Boundary Women’s Project - ‘ABC’ confidence building network events for socially excluded women
- Finsbury & Clerkenwell Volunteers - ‘Lunch and Telephone Club’ befriending and support for older people around Old Street
The winning projects were chosen from the large number of applications received. A community panel was convened with officers from the London Boroughs of Hackney and Islington and staff from Derwent London, to contribute to the decision-making process. The panel was impressed with the quality and range of applications and selected the winning entries on the basis that they will offer a range of positive benefits, focusing on access to employment, physical, social, cultural, arts and health.
John Davies, Head of Sustainability at Derwent London, commented:
“We are delighted to have received such a variety of applications to our Community Fund and we are pleased to support such a great range of projects. We look forward to seeing how this round of projects develop and hope to see even more applications to the next round of funding.”
The Group will repeat the exercise on a biannual basis for the coming years, with the next round launching in October 2016.
*The Tech Belt is defined here as the area extending from King’s Cross to Whitechapel, largely covering EC1 & E1.