Tower Hamlets’ local voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations have received a major £3.5million per year funding boost with the opening of applications for the Mayor’s Community Grants Programme. The new funding programme has been created by the council following engagement with VCS groups and residents, and the projects awarded funding will run from November 2023 to March 2027. 

The council’s vision is to support and invest in a thriving and diverse voluntary and community sector to help it improve outcomes for residents. The programme opened for applications on Monday 24 April. The deadline for making applications is midday Monday 5 June 2023. Click here to find out more.

The THCVS staff team is now in full swing delivering training, drop-ins and 1-1 support across the borough and online to Tower Hamlets organisations planning to apply for the Mayor's Community Grants Programme. Please click here for a list of dates of our training sessions on offer.

We have also developed some resources to help you to get ready to apply for funding and to help with developing your business plan.

Thank you to everyone who attended our AGM last week. We had a thought provoking conversation about influencing change. Thank to our speakers Sayeeda Ashraf, Reverend James Olanipekun and Jama Omar. The write-up and slides will be shared with all members in the next few weeks.

Wednesday 17 May / 7.00 to 8.30pm / St. Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL

To mark International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia the Tower Hamlets LGBT+ Community Forum invite LGBTQ+ communities, organisations and allies to stand up to violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. Guest Speakers:

• Alistair Stewart - Human Dignity Trust
• Moud Goba - Micro Rainbow
• Sarah Baptiste - House of Rainbow

The venue is wheelchair accessible. For more information email lgbtforum@elop.org.

Wednesday 24 May / 10.00am to 2.00pm / Account3, 1-3 Birkbeck Street, E2 6JY

The LBTH Safer Community Team and the Strategic Planning Team are busy listening to women’s concerns via their Women Safety Virtual Walks that have been taking place since April.

The TH Women's Network are inviting you to hear about their findings and will also encourage you to give recommendations as to how we can be safer in our streets. The event will be attended by Jennie Savage, LBTH Strategic Planning and Joshua Codjoe, LBTH Safer Communities Manager.

This event is targeted especially at women and will give you the opportunity to share
your thoughts and concerns on areas in Tower Hamlets where you don’t feel safe, as
well as presentations and lunch. The session will cover the following:

• A chance for anyone that was unable to make the virtual sessions a chance to share their concerns or issues in their area
• Summarise key findings
• Take recommendations for future planning and design
  

Please register your interest in the event by emailing safercommunities@towerhamlets.gov.uk or clicking on the link below.

The purpose of this survey is to find out about how LGBT+ people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets experience discrimination and view their LGBT+ rights. The Equality Act 2010 identified 9 protected characteristics that makes it unlawful to be discriminated against based on your sexual orientation or gender identity.
Give 2 mins of your day to answer anonymously! The survey is aimed at those who live, work, study or socialise in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Please only complete this if this applies to you.

The Equalities Hub is key to the new direction for the Council’s equalities provision, providing a central strategic focus, responding to the community’s needs and issues. The Hub will be vital to bringing about a more coordinated approach to equalities in the borough. If you want to find out more on how to get involved or if you have information you would like to share with the networks please get in touch.

Monday 15 May / 11.30am to 14.30pm / Tramshed Community Hub Digby Street, E2 0LS

The Well Communities Research Consortium (WCRC) want to hear from you! WCRC are a group of researchers, community organisations and health and care staff.

If your organisation provides arts, culture, and/or natural environment services or activities in the Old Ford area (Bow East) or across the whole borough including Old Ford, the WCRC would like to invite you to their upcoming World Café event.

They are especially interested in how disadvantaged communities, such as Old Ford, can access more creative and outdoor activities and how the new NHS Integrated Care Systems (NHS ICSs) could support and help develop such local assets to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities.

The World Café will be set up just like a relaxed Café, with a free hot lunch and drinks. Any representative from organisations that provide arts, culture and/or natural environment services and activities within or around Old Ford is welcome and feel free to bring your colleagues who might be interested as well.

This study is about Londoner’s perceptions of wealth inequality and how these might be linked to various racial and ethnic groups. 

The London School of Economics (LSE) are conducting an exploratory project, seeking the views of different kinds of ethnic and racial communities in London. They are keen to work with campaigning groups and participants of the focus groups in developing the project and in contributing to discussions on wealth inequality. In recognition of your time and insights, they will provide you with a voucher worth £40 to compensate you.

For more information, please contact Adele Oliver, A.E.Oliver@lse.ac.uk or Prof Mike Savage, M.A.Savage@lse.ac.uk.

The increasingly popular Cycle Taxi is operating in Tower Hamlets - perfect for community group trips, visit to the shops or doctors appointments. A friendly mode of transport for those in the community who struggle to get due to mental health problems or physical ailments. Please reach out to our Cycle Taxi team if you’d like more info: will.thompson@bikeworks.org.uk 

LBTH are dedicated to eradicating harmful attitudes and behaviours and want to launch an Anti-Misogyny Campaign to help tackle this. They are seeking residents aged 18+ for their ideas and opinions to help contribute to developing this campaign. It will be a 45 minute to 1 hour online session where they can provide a valuable voice to help tackle this problematic matter and ultimately help to end violence towards women and girls.

Are you a male 18+ who ives/studies in Tower Hamlets or can help recruit a group for this survey? Please contact vawg@towerhamlets.gov.uk or call/text 0783 440 5911

Application deadline: Wednesday 10 May 2023

Are you interested in the natural world that surrounds us, its trees, plants and its biodiversity? LLDC working with Build East, Future Gardeners and Idverde have designed a training programme for people from the 6 Growth Boroughs to discover a range of opportunities in the horticulture sector. There are apprenticeship and job opportunities with other partners and trainees will have the chance to meet employers from the sector.

For more information, contact 07719 990067 or email louisa@bost.org.uk

Superhighways practical and interactive training helps you gain the confidence you need to better use digital, data and technology to further your cause. 

Superhighways knows that you do a lot with little time and limited budgets. So you'll find out about the best free and affordable online tools, apps and devices to use in your everyday work. Courses include comprehensive learning materials and free follow-up support. Book your training and advice surgeries!

Bikeworks are partnering with Cycle Sisters for the launch of their new training to help, assist and encourage sisters to access cycle skills, lessons and build confidence. Over the coming months, Bikeworks will help with starting you on your cycling journey and hopefully you'll join in for their weekly Tower Hamlets rides. 

This project is funded by The Tower Hamlets GP Care Group CIC and Tower Hamlets Council and delivered by Bikeworks. If you have any questions, please email towerhamlets@cyclesisters.org.uk

Tuesday 2 May / 4.30 to 8.30pm / Haileybury Youth Centre

Wednesday 3 May / 4.30 to 8.30pm / Osmani Centre and Trust

Thursday 4 May / 4.30 to 8.30pm / Spotlight Youth Centre

Thursday 11 May / 3.30 to 6.30pm / George Green School

Are you a young person aged 11-19 and live in Tower Hamlets? LBTH is in the process of developing a new youth service and is keen to hear the views of young people in Tower Hamlets. They are hosting four local HACKATHON consultation events, they would like to know what’s good about current youth services in the borough, what’s still needed. Complete the short survey and be in with a chance to win £100 worth of High Street vouchers. Survey will close on 31st July 2023.

Wednesday 3 May / 6.00 to 7.00 / The Space@E20, Multifaith Room Montfichet Road, E15 1AZ

Money Know How Financial Intelligence is a free session that covers essential money management skills and cost of living support. It's open to all and led by expert Money A+E trainers.

Money A+E cover strategies for debt, budgeting, savings and money goals. Workshops have been attended by 1,000s and are proven to increase participants' wellbeing and feelings of control over money. This workshop is offered in valued partnership with Newham Muslim Forum. A £10 Love to Shop gift voucher is available for the first 10 attendees to sign up via Eventbrite.

Thursday 4 May to Tuesday 30 May / Mon-Fri, 9.00am to 7.00pm - Saturdays 10.30am to 4.30pm / Brady Arts Centre 192-196 Hanbury Street, E1 5HU

An exhibition of photographs by Paul Trevor celebrating East London's Bengali activists of 1978.

This exhibition reveals the dramatic events which were sparked by the racist murder of Altab Ali, a 24-year-old Bengali leather garments worker, and pays tribute to the activists who mobilised around the rallying cry of justice that followed.

Local East End photographer Paul Trevor documented how members of the local Bengali community endured racial abuse as a constant factor of everyday life, and the moment at which they mobilised against racist violence and institutional police racism. The exhibition brings together 75 of Trevor’s photographs for the first time, alongside oral history recordings by original activists.

Thursday 4 May / 10.30am to 2.30pm / Tramshed Community Hub Digby Street, E2 0LS

The council is launching its new Small Grants Programme in November 2023. They are organising a workshop for the voluntary community sector organisations to help co-design the grants process to ensure it meets the needs of the residents, the voluntary and community sector and the council.

Thursday 4 May 2023 2.00 to 3.00pm / Zoom

CTA (Community Transport Association) is a national charity that represents and supports providers of community transport. CTA want to explore and discuss how they can work more effectively with local infrastructure to ensure that community transport as a sector thrives and also has the connections it needs into local public sectors and the wider voluntary sector. At this meeting the CTA will give a brief overview of their new conneCTing programme.

Thursday 11 May / 1.00 to 2.00pm / Queen Mary University of London Students' Union Hub 329 Mile End Road, E1 4NT

The School of Business and Management at QMUL are excited to welcome Catherine Johnstone CBE, Chief Executive of the Royal Voluntary Service, onto campus for a Spotlight talk on Leadership!

Catherine will be discussing her career journey into senior leadership, challenges with and advice for others looking to become a leader themselves. We will be supported in the discussions by Matt Hyde OBE, Chief Executive of Scouts, who in collaboration with Catherine has recently worked to develop The Big Help Out. Set to start on Monday 8th May, The Big Help Out aims to achieve the greatest single mobilisation of volunteers in recent memory.

Tuesday 30 May, Thursday 1 June & Friday 2 June / 10.00am to 12.00pm

The Free* Family Cycle Training course is a 3-day course of 2-hour daily sessions. This is a bespoke course for families of maximum 6 riders per family. The course is focused on your family’s needs and expectations.

Please note: All riders must be able to cycle independently. Complete beginners are welcome to book Bikeworks 1:1 cycle training sessions to learn how to ride first. 

Round 1 deadline: Friday 19 May

The Smallwood Trust is delighted to share that they have been awarded £3.2 million in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to support women in financial hardship and organisations led by and serving women. The Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 1 is now open and accepting applications.

Round 1 of the fund will offer emergency funding for organisations delivering frontline services that are led by, for and/or serving women with an income of £1,000,000 or less. The funding will help them address the increase in demand for priority basic needs of women who are most vulnerable to poverty due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Deadline: Monday 22nd May @12noon

Fund Priorities: The Social Prescribing Pilot Fund has been established by NHS North East London to pilot and test activities that can support people’s health and well-being. Projects should be able to establish swiftly, prioritise referrals from social prescriber link workers and provide evaluation by September 2023. 

Grant Amount: Grants of up to £5,000 are available to a single organisation; and grants of up to £10,000 for organisations applying as a partnership. Please click here to read the guidelines for the fund.

Grant Deadline: Monday 22 May @4pm

Fund Priorities: School holidays can be pressure points for some families because of increased costs (such as food and childcare) and reduced incomes- more evidently with the current cost of living crisis. To address this, The Department for Education is providing funding to local authorities to coordinate a holiday programme that provides healthy food and enriching activities to benefit entitled Free School Meals recipients during the Summer Holiday. These activities must last for a minimum of 4 hours per day and for a minimum of 8 days over the summer holiday. Healthy meals must also be provided. Please read full guidance for all details.

Grant Amount:  Grants are available depending on the number of places per day (daily attendance) of the summer club with an uncapped bid amount for SEND-focused summer clubs. Please click here to read the full guidelines

Fund Priorities: EECF has two funding streams: the Isle of Dogs Grants Chest and the Millwall Park Endowment Fund. Both funds will award grants to support positive community activities across their geographic areas of benefit. Through their grant-making, they aim to fund high-quality projects or services that will make a positive and long-lasting difference to local residents. Grant Amount: Grants of up to £10,000. Please click here to read the full guidelines.

Deadline Tuesday 15 August

The Public Health Research (PHR) Programme wishes to commission research on interventions aimed at reducing loneliness. Although social isolation and loneliness often come together, they are conceptually and empirically distinct from each other. This call is primarily interested in intervention aimed at reducing loneliness. The PHR programme is predominantly interested in interventions that are likely to have impact on populations at scale, addressing health inequalities and the underlying wider determinants of health

Deadline Tuesday 31 October 2023

Magic Little Grants is open for applications for £500 grants. It has simple 20-minute application process and an outcome within six weeks. Organisations must be in their first year of operation or have an annual income under £250k. Funding can be used to launch new projects, support existing ones, or cover core costs.

Charities and not-for-profit organisations working with children and young people can apply for Project Costs grants for up to £15k from BBC Children in Need. No deadline.

The National Databank provides free mobile data, texts and calls to people in need via Good Things Foundation’s network of local community partners. Think of it like a ‘food bank’ but for internet connectivity data. Community organisations can apply to access the databank, enabling them to provide data to people in their communities who need it.

Do you run a community group or any small organisation that supports One Housing or Riverside residents? One Housing have made £250,000 available in 2022/23 through their new Community Fund to help fund projects that promote opportunities and wellbeing and tackle poverty in our communities. If you’ve got an idea that could make a difference, they want to hear from you.

This funding aims to help communities across the UK to address climate change.

National Lottery Community Fund are looking for projects that focus on the link between nature and climate. They want to fund projects that use nature to encourage more community-led climate action. The NLCF expect these projects to bring other important social and economic benefits. Like the creation of strong, resilient and healthy communities or the development of ‘green’ skills and jobs.

Grants of between £300,000 and £500,000 are available, with grants of £50,000 to £150,000 over 12 to 18 months also available to constituted groups or clubs, voluntary or community organisations, registered charities, CIOs, SCIOs, CICs and more. The deadline for applications is ongoing.

Grants of between £300 and £10,000 are available for charities, voluntary groups, schools, and local authorities in England to carry out projects that will improve their local community. The aim of the grants programme is to support communities to thrive by funding projects that build strong relationships in and across communities. The deadline for applications is ongoing.

Do you require support with putting together or reviewing funding applications? The East London Business Alliance (ELBA) is a charity brokering opportunities to connect the corporate and community sectors. They are currently offering volunteer support to organisations who need help with writing and reviewing grant funding applications.

Employee volunteers from across ELBA's member companies have offered their time to assist charities to complete applications to the many funds that have emerged as a response to the current crisis. They are able to assist you with writing the application and/or reviewing a completed application. In some cases, they may be able to write a grant funding application on your behalf.

Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any questions, please contact Orlaith: orlaith.mcguinness@elba-1.org.uk