Equality Fund Grants Announced
The Equality Fund was set up to provide flexible, multi-year funding to organisations working towards equality in Camden. We know that no one has a proven template to overcoming the inequalities in our borough, so we give grants to organisations without them needing to tell us how they’ll spend it, this gives them the flexibility to adapt and change their plans as they go (just like start-up businesses do).
Our Alumni, the 250 people who have previously awarded grants with us, decided that the focus of the Equality Fund should be increasing power amongst Camden residents with disabilities and/or form ethnic minority communities. They also decided that the organisations who receive funding should be encouraged to buy products and services from Camden businesses run by Camden residents with disabilities and/or form ethnic minority communities.
We’ve been working with a panel of 10 Camden citizens to decide how funds should be awarded. We caught up with one of the panellists, Kevin Koffi, about his experience and hopes for the funding.
Kevin and a fellow panellists reviewing applications.
Kevin Koffi
About me and Khady’s Dream
I’m Camden born and bred, I first came across Camden Giving when I applied for funding for the Community Interest Company I founded called Khady’s Dream, I wanted to help others to access funding in the way I have, so I applied to join the Camden Giving panel. Khady’s dream is a youth education project I set up because I’ve spent 6 years in prison and I want to help others understand the reality of the consequences off committing a crime and the basics of the criminal justice system. Through my work I am helping others not to go down the same route. I want Khady’s Dream to be the number one place where people go when they are on the edge of committing a crime and when they need guidance onto the right path. I received a grant from Camden Giving to get Khady’s Dream up and running and I wanted to be part of the process of others getting funding from Camden Giving.
My work with Camden Giving
Together with the other panellists we’ve awarded £300,000 to 9 organisations in Camden. It’s been eye-opening and humbling. I’d never given a thought to where the money comes from and how funding is decided. Now I see how money is being decided, but I’m shocked that more people aren’t speaking up against people being excluded from these decisions. I used to think that no one was doing anything for young people like me in Camden, I knew about youth services like Corams and KCBNA, but I didn’t know that there was more going on beyond that.It comes down to awareness. I’d only ever heard of 2 of the orgs we funded and I’ve lived here my whole life.
The challenges of grantmaking
It wasn’t easy to make decisions because I try to see the good in everyone, I took my time to read the applications and tried not to compare them to each other. I don’t think that charities like to be compared like that, so I tried to see each one for what it is. It helped to do this work as part of a team, listening to others thoughts made it much easier.
I really liked the application from Your Bike Project, the reason is that I’ve done something similar and it improved my conversation skills, it helped me work as a team. Having a bike is really helpful in London, I see bikes as a transportation of the future in London.
I hope our grantees can make a difference and that we can evidence the difference this money has made. But most of all I hope it makes the leaders of these organisations happy, life is serious and I hope they have fun doing this work.
Grants awarded
Camden United actively promotes racial equity through free, high-quality football for diverse youth, removing financial barriers. They empower boys as advocates, addressing increased stress due to the Covid-19 pandemic and racial injustice. Their women's team supports girls from global majority backgrounds in a secure exercise environment, aligning with their mission for inclusivity, diversity, and gender equality. They empower disadvantaged youth to tackle underlying issues like knife crime, poverty, and limited opportunities, challenging historical discrimination. By nurturing diversity and inclusivity in football, we aspire to build a more equitable society where all young people, irrespective of their backgrounds, can prosper.
Your Bike Project addresses the chosen missions of race and disability by offering a lifeline to deprived BAME backgrounds, who face poverty, poor social mobility, and vulnerabilities. From Jan 2023, YBP has been working with the London Mayors Office to ensure at least 50 percent overall project users are BAME from Camden. Through donating bicycles, training, and qualifications, it provides a pathway for marginalised individuals to escape anti-social behaviour and crime, ultimately fostering safer communities. Moreover, it ensures inclusivity by promoting cycling among underrepresented communities, bridging gaps in diversity within the-cycling sector. By-providing accessible, eco-friendly transport and promoting well-being through-cycling. Actively-combats inequality-and-empowers-individuals-from-diverse-backgrounds.
London Inclusion Sports Academy
The London Inclusion Sports Academy, is an Inclusion Sports provider. They provide free Inclusion Sport for people living with disabilities, long term health conditions, and everyone else. Everything that they do is about health, togetherness, education, opportunity, ambition and joy! Their work happens on the pitch, in the community and at their Academy in Camden. At their Academy members up-skill, develop and gain employment opportunities. They reach hundreds of people in Camden every week at our: Special Olympics programmes, SEND holiday and after school clubs, Go! Go! Ninja!, Boxercise, Walking footballers, Inclusion Dance, Shows, Academy, and Inclusion Voice panels.
Nuwave Pictures Ltd.
Nuwave provides young people with one-to-one sessions with our qualified Life and Careers Coach and is designed to equip participants with the skills, knowledge and experience to seek work and eventually progress into a career. Using the connections of Nuwave’s founders, the scheme will work alongside several local industries who will support the young people by offering work experience, mentorships, workshops and paid jobs. Thus, bringing different Camden groups and communities together.
British Somali Community Centre
BSCC is a Somali refugee woman-led organisation established in 1995, they were made from the community, by the community to serve the needs of the community and they have continued to be that 28 years on. The organisation continues to break down the structural barriers and inequality the community faces as predominantly Black, Muslim, female and working class by providing much-needed services in educational, employment, and social support and advocacy. Through their services they have shortened the inequality gap of Somali children's educational attainment, improved health outcomes for Somali women, and empowered girls and boys to thrive as leaders.
Somalis in Tech is dedicated to empowering the Somali community within the tech sector, addressing racial inequality head-on. Recognising the tech industry's diversity deficit in the UK, they've initiated programmes like international hackathons, webinars, and mentorship schemes to tackle issues affecting the Somali community. Their "Somali Women in Tech" chapter ensures gender equality, providing women with equal opportunities in tech. Furthermore, their after-school code club in the London borough of Camden directly benefits local children, introducing them to tech from a young age. They'll also be using tech products in the future so should help shape them.
Lifeafterhummus Community Benefit Society
Somers Town is a multi-deprived area predominantly made up of people of colour from diverse backgrounds such as Somali, Bengali, Caribbean, nearly 1 in 2 children receive free school meals and the 'Low Income Family' tracker data suggests 516 households are experiencing food poverty in the ward, the highest number in any ward in Camden. Lifeafterhummus collect and redistribute 5 tonnes of surplus food every month to 80 local households, 11 local hostels, 1 after-school club, offer volunteering and social prescriptions. They are tackling equitable access to primary care thru local GP surgeries and resident-led case for retrofit on one estate.
BWA’s objectives are implemented to relieve poverty and hardship, provide facilities for recreation for those in need and to promote social and economic inclusion of marginalised communities. They do this through their holistic community-hub at the Surma Centre where they run daily meal provision, a warm space, and 121 welfare support by bilingual staff.
Founded by a racially minoritised Camden resident and longstanding community worker, IAmI’s core work engages with the non-white Irish community across Camden.
Through their multi-faceted approach, including our community engagement, they actively advocate and support our members across the borough.
They offer events, activities, workshops, and volunteering opportunities to Camden residents particular those from all racially minoritised backgrounds, fostering their empowerment and equitable participation in our community. Their dedication lies in ensuring that everyone, regardless of their racial identity, feels valued, represented, and fully supported in their pursuit of a more inclusive and equitable society within Camden.
The Equality Fund is supported by people and organisations including Hat Trick Productions, Share Gift, Meta and Share Gift.
