Young Westminster Foundation’s Helping Hands Programme revolves around creating interventions that are led by the voices of young people and community members who have been directly and indirectly impacted by Youth Violence.
Working in collaboration with local youth clubs and partners, we will give communities ownership over creating innovative opportunities for the borough, building on the valuable work already being done to keep young people safe.
The Helping Hands Community Fund is a community-led grants initiative that will provide funding to organisations or individuals working in partnership with an organisation to deliver projects for young people and/or the local community. This will focus on opportunities that offer prevention and intervention for youth violence in the community.
This funding has been made available through contributions from Westminster City Council, London Violence Reduction Unit, BBC Children in Need, John Lyon’s Charity and Young Westminster Foundation.
The Community Fund is designed to respond to the needs of young people and the community within North West Westminster as identified in our North West Westminster Serious Youth Violence Consultation Research Report. The Community Fund aims to support partners to build capacity within the community to address the impact of Serious Youth Violence.
We have asked young people who live in North Westminster what change they would like to see in their local community. We heard about the importance of ‘expanding positive activities for young people’ ‘safe spaces for young people to meet’ and ‘more opportunities to gain skills for employment’.
The Fund has also been informed by a core group of local practitioners and residents. We have worked with this group over the past 9 months to hear how Serious Youth Violence impacts and the young people they work with.
For more information and access to the application form please contact the Helping Hands Programme Manager, Marium Uddin marium@youngwestminster.com
| Who can apply? | Applications can be made by organisations or individuals partnering with an organisation.
This funding is solely for the provision of new or existing projects / activities / services / programmes (including pilots) that work in North West Westminster. Funding can be used to cover project/activity/programme costs, venue costs, and capital equipment. |
| Geographical Area of Benefit | Projects must benefit communities within Westbourne Ward, Harrow Road Ward and Queen’s Park Ward. We encourage applications to focus on children and young people. |
| How will funding decisions be made? | A steering group made up of local community members, practitioners and residents will make the funding decisions. |
| Size of available grants | We would like to give a range of organisations the opportunity to receive funding. Therefore we offer grants of up to £5,000 |
Applications open: Monday 30th January 2023
Deadline: Monday 27th February 2023
Panel Meeting: Friday 10th March (with applicants informed of decisions soon after)
