News and information from our partners, collaborators and more on their exciting opportunities and events for each week. Be sure to check in to keep up to date with industry news.
Haringey Community Building Event
Haringey Community Action Network (HCAN) is a network of local groups, including trade unions and community groups, united around the aim of promoting closer working between the various groups active in the borough.
They are organising their first conference on Saturday 11th June between 10.30am and 4pm and want to invite anyone who lives or works in the borough and wants to help make positive change where we all live and work. It’s also a way to stop people being isolated in their homes, workplaces and communities, as HCAN want to bring people together from all different groups, unions and communities.
There will be a number of discussions and lots of time and space for people to just chat and meet each other.
The venue is Alevi Cultural Centre, 19 Clarendon Road, N8 0DD.
Do you know about The Discovery Fund? Apply now
The Discovery Fund is a new funding programme offering the time, space and skills development to allow community businesses to explore community tech ideas, which align with their values and will help keep the benefits from their idea at the local level.
The Discovery Fund offers:
£12,000 to explore a community tech solution to an existing business or community challenge,
A free place on the structured design course – Community Explore
A free place on Third Sector Lab’s Open Working and Reuse course
A network of experts and like-minded peers in a facilitated community of practice
Apply by noon on 21 July here
Apply now for the UK Social Enterprise Awards
The UK Social Enterprise Awards are the country’s biggest celebration of social enterprises recognising the best in the sector. They are a chance to showcase the incredible contributions made by businesses that have been making a real difference in tackling social and environmental problems both in the UK and around the world.
Applications just opened at the end of last week. There are 15 categories in total.
Find out more here
Black Culture Market
Sat, June 03 and Sun, June 04, 2023, 11:00 - 17:00 both days
Join Black Culture Market this June for their exciting Summer event. Black Culture Market is the destination to support and shop from Black-owned businesses in Brixton. Explore the wonderful stalls on the weekend whilst catching up with friends.
The market has something for everyone and supports emerging entrepreneurs & new black businesses of African & Caribbean descent with opportunities to be more visible in the retail industry. If you're looking for food, drinks, gifts, cards, unique art, jewellery, male grooming kits, skincare, clothes or other original accessories and more come down!
This market truly the community's spirit as well as supports black businesses. Come early to avoid disappointment.
This is a free event, please register here
Address: Downstairs at The Department Store, 248 Ferndale Road, London, SW9 8FR
Enter the Locality Awards
Nominations for the Locality Awards are still open until Wednesday 7 June 2023. We’d love the awards to showcase our amazing members across London, so please do take a moment to nominate your community organisation or a fellow member who deserves to be recognised. There’s a chance to win £1,000 for your organisation (excluding the Keep it Local Awards), plus a Locality Awards trophy.
Royal Trinity Hospice Pride event - 16th June
Pride event at the Royal Trinity Hospice with a panel discussion followed by a tea party in their gardens!
It is open to everyone, but especially LGBTQ+ members of the local community who would like to learn more about the hospice, engage in the panel discussion about the importance of living and dying as you, and eat cake in the (hopefully) sunshine! More details here
Hear Me Speak campaign
The Metropolitan Police Service receives a call about a mental health concern every four minutes. They send an officer to respond to a mental health-related call every twelve minutes. Hear Me Speak, campaign has launched. The goal of this campaign, backed by the charity Beyond, is to contribute to systemic and longer-term change by instigating adequate training and support so that individual police forces feel better equipped to deal with mental health crises accurately and sensitively.
Remembering Brixton's Contemporary Black History
What are you doing on 4th and 6th June? Attend this launch event, you have two dates to choose from, it's going to be brilliant.
Remembering Brixton’s Contemporary Black History: Memorialising People, Places & Events is a new grassroots heritage project developed by locals aiming to help safeguard against the complete loss of extensive Black heritage that created and still underpins the placemaking of the infamous Brixton we know and love. The project will focus in the pilot (phase 1) on the heydays of the 1970s/80s/90s, mainly through capturing the lived experience of locals.
More details here
Get your organisation back on track.
The Recovery Loan Fund assists organisations led by Black and Racially Minoritised teams in getting back on track post-pandemic, offering loans of between £50k and £1.5m, with up to 100% grant match funding on loans secured, and support through the application process and follow-on business support.
To be eligible to apply for the Recovery Loan Fund and receive additional support, the organisation must:
Be a charity or social enterprise
Have at least 51% of its Board and Senior Leadership Team from BAME communities
Have a turnover of above £200k
Be applying for a loan of between £50k and £1.5m
Have been operating for more than two years
Operate in England
The Recovery Loan Fund is open for applications until 11.59pm on Sunday, 31st of December 2023. Email josh.falconerroberts@ubele.org for more information.
Social Lab Project
This is a recent image, below, taken at a recent Social Lab project run by Christina Oredeko and facilitated by Michael Hamilton, Yannick Wassmer and Drew Sinclair.
Christina says, "For the past 11 months we have been exploring safety and grant-making with 18 organisations. In these social labs we have been using a series of exercises such as this one to foster a safe space within our workshops. We look forward to sharing more of this work soon".
Be sure to check back here every week for more news, events and opportunities
