Participatory grantmaking sees fund award more than £240k to local services for 2024
Melanie May | 5 July 2024 | News
A fund that uses participatory grantmaking to allocate funding to small charities and social enterprises in London’s borough of Camden has awarded grants for 2024 totalling more than £240,000.
Camden Giving’s Equalities Fund was set up in 2020 to support local community services. This year, the charity received applications totalling £240,000. As with previous rounds of funding, it recruited local Camden residents to join its funding panel and decide where the money should be allocated, awarding two-year grants of £30,000 each. Fund money has been donated by foundations, businesses, wealthy individuals and local government.
Camden Giving believes the diverse life experiences of people who live in the areas that funds aim to support are invaluable in determining how the money can best help locally. As such, it prioritises shifting power to a varied range of voices, appointing individuals from minority groups, including different ethnicities, people on low incomes, people with disabilities and those with experience of the criminal conviction system – typically those people who are usually excluded from decision-making. Panellists receive training and support in their role, including how to be anti-racist grantmakers, from Camden Giving.
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One participant, Nafisa, when asked about her experience as a decision maker, commented:
“Oh, it’s fantastic! It’s the first time I have done it and I have loved it. I have met good people and I have learned a lot about what is going on in my community, and now I can direct people to what services are available in the community, which I didn’t know before. So, I have gained knowledge from participating on the panel.”
The participatory grantmaking panel of Camden residents awarded the Equalities Fund to:
- Khady’s Dream: a Community Interest Company (CIC) dedicated to deterring young people from committing crimes through in-depth workshops about the consequences of crime with a basic understanding of the criminal justice system.
- Kilburn State Of Mind: which offers learning facilities and expertise to the community and locality of Kilburn and surroundings areas. They focus on teaching IT, computing and music to people who otherwise may not have the opportunity to learn.
- Action Youth Boxing Intervention: a Camden based community organisation working with children and young people through programmes that build confidence, self-esteem, self-worth and physical wellbeing through non-contact boxing and fitness training.
- Clime-It Brothers, which run an academy which teaches young people from different minority groups in Camden alternative ways to legitimize their income. The academy space is a platform that offers individuals the chance to create a sellable product to divert them from selling drugs in the community. They offer free training in retail and communication skills, enhancing their employability.
- NW5 Community Play Project: a community-run charity on the Peckwater Estate in Kentish Town. They were established in 1973 following a campaign from residents concerned about a lack of facilities for young people who lived in and around the estate. They provide facilities and services for young people of all ages 0-25 and their families and seek to foster community cohesion throughout the work.
- Creators House: a not-for-profit youth empowerment organisation for 18–25-year-olds that aims to help and support young creatives from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds, especially those from ethnic backgrounds, who are disproportionately more likely to be discriminated against and have more barriers to opportunities within the creative industry.
- Urban Community Project, which runs Camden Mobile Foodbank, operating from the Kings Cross area. They provide nutritious food that nurtures health and well-being and cooking from scratch.
- West Hampstead Women’s Centre, which has been helping women in the London Borough of Camden since 1984. They exist to empower women emotionally, socially, and economically and encourage them to fulfil their potential. Their mission is to provide a safe, supportive and flexible space for women to meet where they can access services for their health, personal development, safety, skill-based education, holistic therapies and support them in crisis.
Natasha Friend, Director at Camden Giving, commented:
“Camden Giving has worked with local people over the last seven years to shape how we award funding to vital services that would otherwise struggle to survive without our funding. We actively bring together people from different backgrounds to create communities that can thrive in Camden.
“These grants are a response to what local people in this borough want to see from civil society and support vital services to thrive. Camden Giving is only able to do this because of a group of people who have spent their evenings plotting for a better future, they’ve given their time and their hearts to this work and everyone in Camden owes them a great debt alongside our many partners supporting our work.”
There will be a celebration event in central London on the evening of 17 July for panellists/grantees and donors. Projects and achievements will be acknowledged and showcased as examples for both the future in Camden and to encourage other boroughs to consider this form of participatory grantmaking.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.