East London's Bike Recycling Enterprise is awarded £45,000 by The City of London's City Bridge Trust
Howard Lake | 13 February 2008 | News
The Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action (CIVA) in partnership with Bikeworks CIC in Tower Hamlets has received a big cash boost thanks to a £45,000 grant awarded by the City of London’s The City Bridge Trust. The grant has been given to CIVA to enable the start up of ‘Bikeworks’ – a bike recycling and training project.
Bikeworks will refurbish, to an accredited standard, old and recovered-stolen bicycles, which will then be made available for sale to the general public at very affordable prices. The project will create new job opportunities and involve a large number of people in a worthwhile community enterprise.
Bikeworks is a newly established community enterprise that delivers community-based cycle training and safety sessions; for local schools, disabled people, sign language users, and people from minority ethnic communities for whom English is not their first language. The project also has two major local employers onboard, encouraging more of their staff to cycle to work.
Such a project will not only reduce the amount of material going into landfill, but will also encourage cycling as a healthy, green and affordable way of getting around. Says CIVA Trustee Mr David Miller, “We were over the moon when the funds were approved, it will make such a difference to the people of East London, and it is hoped that the project will appeal to the members of the large BME communities in this part of the capital, who traditionally cycle very little.”
The City Bridge Trust has awarded over £200 million to London’s charities and community groups in the last twelve years to help the lives of disabled people, children, young people and older people in London communities, as well as supporting environmental projects and the voluntary and community sector.
It is the largest independent grant making trust working specifically for London following an Act of Parliament in 1995 which allowed surplus monies from the ancient trust (originally set up to maintain the five London bridges crossing the Thames into the City) to be spent for the benefit of Londoners, through charitable grant making. The Trust’s £826m fund was built up over 850 years, originally from tolls, rents and donations raised on London Bridge.
Says Clare Thomas, Chief Grants Officer at The City Bridge Trust; “This grant application was commended by our committee and clearly demonstrates the tangible outcomes for the Tower Hamlets are and other East London boroughs. We look forward to seeing how Bikeworks develops as a result.”
To find out more about The City Bridge Trust and its grants, charities should log onto www.citybridgetrust.org.uk
Those wanting to find out more about Bikeworks, please contact Mr David Miller or Jim Blakemore, 55 Tudor Road, London. E9 7SN. Tel: 020 8533 8433. www.bikeworks.org.uk/
CIVA is an Innovations Centre founded in 1995 to develop, pilot and fund new ideas for addressing social problems. Those wanting to find out more about Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action (CIVA), please contact Michael Norton, Director. Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action, 9 Mansfield Place, London NW3 1HS. www.civa.org.uk
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Notes to Editors:
The City Bridge Trust
The City Bridge Trust is London’s largest independent grant-making trust, of which the City of London Corporation is the sole trustee. Through its grant-making and strategic initiatives, The City Bridge Trust works closely with voluntary groups and charities to reduce disadvantage in London. The City Bridge Trust was set up in 1995 as the grant making arm of Bridge House Estates whose original purpose was to maintain the first stone bridge across the River Thames – London Bridge.
www.citybridgetrust.org.uk
City of London Corporation
The ancient City of London Corporation has a 21st- century role supporting the business City as the world’s leading international financial and business centre. The City of London Corporation provides local government services for the City of London “Square Mile” at the heart of London – but its responsibilities also extend far beyond the City boundaries and include paying for and running the Barbican Centre, Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, and three wholesale food markets, as well as acting as the London Port Health Authority. The City of London Corporation is the sole trustee of The City Bridge Trust.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.