London estates given £1m grants bonanza as lifeline

Funding boost: the Angell Town in Brixton
Matt Writtle

More than 125 deprived housing estates in London are set to benefit from a £1 million-plus grants bonanza as a result of our award-winning initiative The Estate We’re In.

The £1.2 million regeneration package — allocated to 96 grassroots groups tackling poverty and social exclusion on estates across the capital — is the largest aggregate grant distribution ever made by the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.

The historic moment takes total grant giving by the Dispossessed Fund to more than £10 million since it was founded in 2010.

That is the most money ever distributed by a newspaper-led charitable initiative and also takes the fund’s total grants beyond the 1,000 mark.

The array of projects funded is impressively diverse and comprises 85 groups in 23 boroughs as part of our pan-London rollout plus 11 new groups at Angell Town, our flagship estate in Brixton.

Minister for civil society Rob Wilson said: “The Standard’s fantastic campaign will enable London’s estates to be reinvigorated by those who live in them and care about them.”

Notable groups funded include Salaam Peace which confronts radicalisation on two north-east London estates with the motto “Be the change in the community you want to see”. Others, such as South Central Youth and One True Voice, tackle gang culture on estates, with the latter targeting at-risk Somali girls in Islington.

Standard team listed for prize

The Standard’s team for The Estate We’re In project has been longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils.

It comprises campaigns editor David Cohen and photographers Matt Writtle and Kiran Mensah, who have been recognised for their work after spending months on the Angell Town estate in Brixton.

The Orwell Prize is Britain’s most prestigious award for political reporting. The shortlist will be announced in April.

The grants offer residents of all ages a wide-ranging assortment of sport, art, educational and social activities.

Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands said: “As London’s newspaper, we believe in harnessing the potential of all of the capital and that is why we are delighted to announce grants to parts of the city that are hardest to reach.

“In choosing the projects, priority was given to resident-led and resident- supported applications, which succeed- ed in the face of fierce competition.”

The pan-London programme was almost four times oversubscribed, with 285 grant applications amounting to £4.3 million that were assessed by the London Community Foundation, the charity that holds and manages the Dispossessed Fund. Its 85 winning grants were agreed at a six-hour meeting attended by the main donors — bank group Citi, law firm Linklaters, property developers Mount Anvil, the Dispossessed Fund and the Government.

Grants averaged £13,500 and the max- imum available from the £1.15 million pot was £20,000. In addition, 11 Angell Town groups were awarded grants totalling £47,000 to complement six grants of £86,000 we made last year.

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