Kingston Council has promised funding for community projects that benefit the residents of Cambridge Road Estate as part of its regeneration scheme.
The funding scheme, called Community Chest, forms part of the Cambridge Road Estate (CRE) Regeneration Programme. The council began phase one of the programme in October, with the demolition of Piper Hall and two other housing blocks. Residents voted in favour of the regeneration scheme in 2020. The scheme began – as stated by Ian Thomas, the Chief Executive of the Kingston borough, in the Cambridge Road Offer – due to the poor living conditions and crime rates within the estate. The programme’s intention is to make Cambridge Road a safer and better place for families and young people to live.
A spokesman for the council said: “The Community Chest is part of the social value commitment from Countryside and Kingston Council as part of the Cambridge Road Estate regeneration programme.”
The Community Chest offers grants of up to £5,000 to fund community projects that benefit the estate’s residents. The type of projects that the council are looking to fund include those that will improve the health and well-being of residents on the estate, such as a community cafe or weekly well-being class.
Other projects that would be likely to receive funding are those that will help communities on the estate to meet and grow, as well as projects that will help with employment and educational skills and seek to help young people. Examples of these projects would be: classes that benefit the youth and teach them essential skills, fitness classes for the estate residents that require hall hire and staffing costs, fundraisers to help families of the estate that are in need, etc.
The programme will not fund projects that only benefit individuals or single households, promote religions or political parties, or projects that are too similar to one another.
The spokesman added that it is part of a wider social value programme that will bring a range of opportunities for residents of the estate while it is being regenerated.
The programme has promised that each year, £50,000 will be put into the Community Chest to fund projects that Cambridge Road Estate residents support and value. However, in the first year £75,000 has been promised to be put towards the scheme. There are two types of funding available in the scheme: small grants and large grants.
Small grants provide up to £300 to a CRE resident adults or young people who are under 18 (with support of an adult who can be responsible for the money, such as a parent or youth worker) for their proposed community projects. In order to receive a small grant, the project must: be proposed/run by a CRE resident, benefit CRE residents and the estate, and meet at least one funding priority.
Large grants provide up to £5,000 and are aimed at not-for-profit organisations or local school projects. The requirements that must be met for a large grant are: the project is proposed by a constituted, UK based, not-for-profit organisation or local school, the project must provide evidence that it involves/supports CRE residents or the estate, and that the project meets at least one funding priority.
The CRE regeneration team will decide which projects they will fund, run, and will benefit the programme the most.
As part of the regeneration programme there will be four rounds of funding each year in March, June, September and December. The next deadline to apply for funding is March 14. Find out more information here.
