Funding Available For Local Projects

From transforming derelict space to bringing street art to the  community

A bid to bring renowned street art to Acton, plans for a unique community garden and a project to help young people engage with nature are just some of the successful ideas chosen to be part of the latest round of Ealing Council’s Transform Your Space initiative (TYS).

TYS offers a share of up to £10,000 from a £100,000 annual pot which match-funds projects to change underused corners of neighbourhoods into local assets. 

The selection panel had 14 eligible projects to consider, with the panel looking for those projects that would be able to transform pieces of derelict or underused spaces.

The panel was impressed by ten project teams’ abilities to fundraise; the level of detail in the project plans to support delivery of their projects; and the range of volunteering opportunities each project will be offering to their local communities.

There are three successful projects chosen for this round of TYS that are still crowdfunding and calling on the support of local people:

·         ‘Acton Unframed’  aims to bring some of the world’s best street artists to Acton W3 to encourage commercial and social change in the neighbourhood. The council has offered them £10,000 towards their £54,000 project, and this encouraged the Mayor of London to get behind them and offer £15,000. The project has just met its crowdfunding target, and been widely praised.

“Amongst the many community-led projects I’ve worked with, this Acton Unframed crowdfunding campaign is one of the best examples, as to how a group can successfully mobilise widespread community support for an idea that can potentially change their neighbourhood for the better. The campaign ran by West London Art Factory really has caught the attention of so many people in and around Acton. I look forward to seeing the murals in place”.

Kofi Nyamah | Community Management Coordinator (Ealing Central & Acton)

·         ‘Sowing a Community’ is creating a unique communal garden at St Marks Primary School in Hanwell by redeveloping a redundant space to establish a supportive educational space for the local community whilst helping to improve air quality in the area. The council has offered £10,000 towards the project’s £150,000 target, and this encouraged the Mayor of London to get behind them and offer £20,000, alongside the charity Trees for Cities, which has also given £25,000. They are looking to get over the line by 27 August.

·         ‘Western Road Urban Garden’ in Southall will transform a large derelict and overgrown site in Southall and create a community green space that provides leisure, food and community interaction, so the council has offered £10,000 towards the project’s costs of £33,000.  They are to people to support and pledge by 23 September to make sure they meet their target.

The council has also supported a further 7 projects and will be giving them support to help get underway as soon as they’ve got all their funding in place:

·         ‘The Living Room Kitchen’ in Acton has £10,000 towards their project to redesign the kitchen with the help of 11-18 year olds and has already secured match funding from its own reserves, a local church and Sainsbury Trust

·         ‘Horsenden Allotments project’ has £8,840, towards mentoring young people to be more aware of the natural environment as well as provide a secure space for schools to deliver activity-based lessons

·         ‘Edible Gardens and Health Café with Radcliffe the Worker’ in Northolt have £8,375 towards their £16,750 project that aims to help local residents to grow food and cook meals on a tight budget

·         ‘Northolt Library Garden and Community Café’ will use £7,450 to match fund residents’ ambitions to create a community managed garden, with a storytelling bench for storytelling sessions and a community cafe selling affordable smoothies and wraps which are very popular with the locals

·         ‘Medlar Farm Edible Gardens’ will have £5,800 to help their local residents’ group work with a nearby nursery to help people grow food, and will also tap into the talents of a local nutritionist to teach people how to prepare healthy meals

·         ‘Restoring Ravenor Primary School Garden’ needed £4,750 funding to ensure this school garden in Greenford is usable again for the entire school and help maintain the space for years to come

·         ‘Allotment Gardens Raised Beds’ in Perivale will recover derelict land, install raised beds and storage lockers for use by new and elderly gardeners using £3,150 from the Transform Your Space pot

There are already many TYS initiatives that have been successfully completed already. They include an inspiring trail of woodland walks at Copley Close in Hanwell, the Piggeries Orchard project next to the Grand Union Canal and Katherine Buchan Meadow, a community space in Hanwell.

Councillor Mik Sabiers, cabinet member for environment and highways said: “It’s vital that local people gain the confidence and skills for shaping their local community and TYS is a way we can support them to do just that.

“The council is here to offer guidance in helping these projects be successful and in this latest round of TYS alone, there was a funding pot of £100,000 to support crowdfunding projects. It’s a significant sum that is shared across the borough and, ultimately, ends up supporting investment in our local communities.

“There will be opportunities for groups to work-up new project ideas this autumn in preparation for the next round of TYS funding, which will be welcoming applications later this year.”

Find out about more about TYS and getting involved in local community projects through www.dosomethinggood.org.uk

7 August 2019