London Bridge Business Community gives fresh funding commitment to local charities
Team London Bridge’s Building Communities Fund has continued business community support for local charities for the 18th consecutive year.
The London Bridge Building Communities Fund is eternally popular with large numbers of applications received every year. Local groups this year were invited to submit applications for small grants of up to £3,000 for projects, focused on one of the follow areas that are aligned with TLB’s objectives:
creativity, arts & physical wellbeing
nature & sustainability
employment, learning & upskilling
Our grants panel then have the hard task of deciding which projects get awarded funding. We are hugely grateful to the London Bridge business community representatives on the panel who volunteer their time to screen and assess every application against set criteria.
This fund, together with the long-term Building Bridges Fund, amounts to a total of £50,000 per year, as a way for the London Bridge business community to give back to neighbouring groups and initiatives.
This year the Building Communities Fund has been awarded to 11 diverse initiatives and is set to provide vital resources for each, tackling a specific challenge or opportunity within the community. Congratulations to all of the successful projects, we look forward to keeping tabs and reporting on your great work later this year.
Our 2024/25 Building Communities Fund grantees are:
CAD-HR - Building Resilience Through Childminding
Supporting uneducated and unemployed migrant communities to become Ofsted registered childminders through training and ongoing support.
Edible Rotherhithe - Food growing and Forest School development at Surrey Square School
132 children across 3 terms will learn how to grow their own food, develop skills, caring for the natural environment using the Forest School approach to outdoor learning, which builds self-esteem and confidence, and improves the children’s health and wellbeing.
Elmington Community Gardens - Elmington Community Food Growing
Through free workshops and community gardening sessions the project plants and maintains food growing sites around the estate. Fruit and vegetables are freely available for any member of the community to harvest as they desire.
The Psychosynthesis Trust - Exploring Anxiety Project
The project supports people experiencing anxiety to explore it through a relational approach, using nature and community. It enables people to have a greater understanding of their symptoms and how to manage them, whilst accessing the health benefits of being in nature at local community gardens or social farms in and around SE1.
Ignite Hubs - Creating Future Digital Whizzes in Southwark
The project inspires and equips children and young people with valuable coding and STEM skills to access digital careers and be future ready.
Lung Theatre
Across 24 performances and engagement activities at the Southwark Playhouse, audiences of over 4,100 people will experience the premiere of ‘The Children’s Inquiry’- a collaborative new musical co-created by looked after children. This bold project shines a light on a forgotten community, telling their stories in their own words.
Power2 - Teens and Toddlers
Teens and Toddlers empowers young people to become mentors and role models to younger children. Through this programme they improve their confidence which allows them to develop vital skills relevant to education and future employability, enhance their communication abilities, gain work experience and achieve a recognised qualification.
Sculpt - Igniting Futures
Power Up is an employment support programme working with young people aged 14-16, experiencing significant socio-economic disadvantage. Through a six-week placement and continued follow up support they build essential skills, confidence and knowledge while challenging traditional stereotypes of what can be achieved and what is possible.
PG Time Bank
Based on the Kingswood estate, Southwark, PG Time Bank bring people together to share time and skills. As an asset-based approach the project improves wellbeing and group activities support creativity and wellbeing whilst also building connections. The skill exchanges connect the community and enable people to coproduce services for and by themselves.
Camberwell After School Project - Volunteering Work Experience Placement
This programme offers 12-week placements, 3 days a week, to 10 unemployed Southwark residents aged 18 and above. Participants will gain practical experience working with children aged 2 to 11 in a childcare setting, aimed at enhancing their employability prospects.
The Purple Ladies - Move Share & Exchange
This programme provides weekly physical and creative activities towards improving the well-being of residents living in and around the Cossall estate. It is followed by a social cafe offering a healthy home-cooked lunch and a skill exchange platform.