In the Summer of 2022, Barking Riverside Ltd (BRL) launched the Barking Riverside Community Fund. This initiative offers grants of up to £1,500 to residents living in Thames View, Barking Riverside or Scrattons Farm who have an idea for a project that aims to improve the local area.
Residents who have lived here for a long time have a deep understanding of the challenges in the area and are, in many cases, in the best position to develop solutions that aim to meet these needs. Also, new residents arrive with fresh ideas and energy when wanting to help shape community life locally. The Community Fund was set up to get these ideas off the ground by harnessing the knowledge, ambition and skill of residents.
So far, we are proud to have supported 13 community led initiatives through the Community Fund since it was established. Examples of projects that have been funded include a Pop-Up Community Café at the Rivergate Centre, a drama school for young people, and healthy eating nutrition workshops for adults.
The idea behind the Community Fund is to support residents to explore and test their ideas for community projects. We hope that the initial funding will help to get things going in the first instance, and that projects will continue once the learnings from the testing phase have been understood and further developed. It’s fantastic to see projects that continue to be delivered far beyond the funding period and keep delivering on their impact by creating sustainable models which enable projects to grow and develop. Junior’s Forest School, Wander Wild has been going for almost a year now, after diversifying funding. In a safe environment, Junior teaches children outdoor skills such as how to make a fire from scratch and about using tools effectively. We spoke to Junior about his reflections on what he has found most rewarding about delivering his project. Junior said, “Seeing the community come together, I think that’s been amazing because when we see that, I think for me it’s been the biggest driver – for everyone to feel like they can be here together and enjoy.” We look forward to seeing Wander Wild go from strength to strength.
In addition to the grant, we support residents to deliver successful projects in a number of ways. We connect grantees to local people and resources that can help make their idea a success, and we offer mentoring across the different aspects of the project delivery. Importantly, we also support generating awareness towards the wider community when projects launch, leveraging the Barking Riverside official communications channels to encourage as many people as possible to get involved.
The Community Fund is open to applications three times a year, with the fifth round currently underway. The next round will open in early February 2024. If you are interested in applying, be sure to visit the social impact page of our website for more information.
By Sara Bloch
Barking Riverside Limited
