As a Local Authority, what are some of the key ways you support local civil society and community organisations?
As a local authority, our support for the voluntary and community sector is vast and spans many different departments, from our public health, tackling poverty and resettlement teams right through to our dedicated Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) team.
One of our major support mechanisms is grant giving across three main programmes: Mayor’s Community Grants Programme, Small Grants Programme and the Emergency Fund in addition to Social Value grants and resources for the VCS. Across the council, many other departments give grants but also commission the VCS to meet community need and/or distribute central government grants to tackle specific challenges.
Aside from grant giving, we also offer a range of support to the VCS which is based on their needs, which may be a 1-2-1 funding search, brokering conversations, empowering partnerships, supporting over 70 community premises or just connecting them to other parts of the organisation and unblocking barriers.
What’s something exciting that you’re currently developing?
Tower Hamlets is one of three London boroughs to be successfully selected as a Sport England Place Partner which sees investment by Sport England into the borough to increase physical activity. This is a unique opportunity for Tower Hamlets to collaborate with the people and partners who live and work locally to build a picture of the system from their perspective reflecting our community’s unique needs and circumstances.
The wider aim is to bring together stakeholders across all parts of our system to embed the conditions for movement and positive ways of working into our business as usual, resulting in long-lasting and transformational change. This will break down the barriers and address inequalities that are preventing the least active members of our community from joining in.
Although at the early stages, we are working closely with our Active Partnership, London Sport, and other local statutory and VCS partners to kick start this work and make a real difference across Tower Hamlets, exploring how we best spend the fund and achieve our outcomes.
What’s one insight that you’d like to share with funders about your local area?
Tower Hamlets is often referred to as the best of London in one borough so there are almost too many facts and insights to share!
Tower Hamlets is the most densely populated borough in England and to put this into perspective, if you divided the borough into football pitches, 112 people would live on each pitch. It might not be surprising therefore that, at the last count in 2023 the borough has over 1,300 VCS organisations registered in a 7.6 square mile radius, which illustrates the richness of the sector but also the high need in the borough.
What do you value most about being a part of London Funders?
At Tower Hamlets, we value the networking and enjoy being able to connect with funders doing innovative things across London that we can learn from but also understand how our voluntary and community sector can benefit from.
We also value the insights that come our way every Friday and often share them across the organisation where relevant, with some sparking some interesting conversations about what this insight means for us and our VCS.
Looking ahead, share one thing that is on your radar. What should we prioritise as a network of funders?
Last year, we delivered our first Access to Funding Event which saw 16 funders engage with over 160 of our VCS groups in our Town Hall across a morning of networking, understanding each others priorities and of course, some lunch! We received some really positive feedback about how much the sector benefitted from this, including many who received funding as a result and the value it gave in terms of making connections with other VCS organisations, funders and support services.
As a network of funders, it would be great to keep exploring the ways in which we can connect with VCS organisations and support functions at a place level, but also London-wide and perhaps what opportunities we could work on together to make this happen!
What’s an issue or area you’d like to discuss with other members?
We’re always keen to learn and explore ways in which we can improve our provision and support for our sector across all issues.
One thing we are exploring through our work with Sport England is a more participatory grant making model, building on the work of our Public Health team’s neighbourhood model. So any and all insights into how the place partnership could achieve this would be welcome!
More generally, we are happy to have conversations about all things Tower Hamlets and how we can support our sector – whether that’s brokering conversations, making introductions or offering space to chat to the sector, let us know!
Connect with us about:
- Local government and VCS co-design
- Local government grant funding
- Place-based partnerships
- Any future pan-East London work
The Member Spotlight is taken from our monthly member-exclusive newsletter, the Member Memo. The newsletter contains targeted information about upcoming events and updates from across the membership, with opportunities to connect and collaborate with other members. If you are a London Funders' member and would like to sign up, please email ora.ataguba@londonfunders.org.uk.