HACKNEY COUNCIL is offering to help make your ideas come to life with small Community Chest grants available to local groups and residents.
Up to £1,000 will be offered in total to make small ideas become big successes. The projects and events should help foster good relations and build a sense of community and pride in Hackney. They should be either short-term or one-off activities rather than long-term events.
The Council has awarded around £10,000 in Community Chest grants already in 2015/16. Successful projects include a grant to Daubeney Fields Forever’s outdoor summer festival and a grant to The Sharp End project which helps tackle loneliness in older residents.
Nazmum Khanum, of The Sharp End, which organised a summer party at St Mary’s Secret Garden last month, said: “The party brought people together and it was an inter-generational event that everyone enjoyed. People learnt from each other rather than coming to a class and taking a prescribed lesson. It had a very social aspect.”
The second round of this year’s Community Chest grants are now (Wednesday 9 September) open for applications. Submissions must be done by midday on Wednesday 7 October 2015.
Cllr Jonathan McShane, Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Culture, said: “We know that residents enjoy a strong sense of neighbourliness in Hackney, and these grants are designed to help build upon and strengthen the bonds in our communities.”
The grant can fund events delivered any time between November this year and up to the end of March 2016.
He added: “If you have an idea that you think will foster better community relations in Hackney then get in touch and we could help make it happen. I would like to thank our voluntary and community sector partners for all of the work that they do to bring people in Hackney together.”
More guidance and information on how to apply, and details of other grants available to community and voluntary groups, can be found via this Council webpage.
For more information, you can also email: communitypartnerships@hackney.gov.uk; or call: 020 8356 4066.
