Fast Track scheme
Monday June 28, 2010
Forty-two community groups are celebrating after being offered £100,000 worth of small grants between them under the council’s Fast Track scheme.
Hammersmith & Fulham Council has set aside the money to help the many voluntary and community groups that work in the borough as a mark of appreciation for the valuable work that they do in the community. Groups were invited to apply for small grants of up to £5,000 and the response to the council was overwhelming.
In total, more than 300 community groups have now benefitted from the Fast Track scheme since it was launched in 2006.
The list of beneficiaries, that includes groups as diverse as the Friends of Wendell Park, Fulham Black Community Association, H&F Pensioners Forum and Special Olympics H&F, means more money going to good causes up and down the borough.
Cllr Joe Carlebach, Cabinet Member for Community Care said: “I am sure that the small grants that we have awarded will make a real difference to each of these 42 organisations. Our Fast Track scheme recognises that there are many local groups in the borough who provide wonderful services but sometimes struggle to pay for particular projects or activities.
“The small grants on offer can make life for them much easier and voluntary groups will be pleased to know that we shall be accepting more applications in the near future.”
If you would like to take advantage of the Fast Track scheme, you will be delighted to know that the council has set aside another £100,000 for voluntary and community groups, with applications accepted from July 5 until August 16.
If you are a voluntary or community organisation working in Hammersmith & Fulham, and would like to apply for a small grant between £100 and £10,000, you can request an application form by writing to: Community Investment, 4th Floor, 77 Glenthorne Road, Hammersmith, W6 0LJ or calling 020 8753 2487. Alternatively, you can email: cit@lbhf.gov.uk or download an application form from www.lbhf.gov.uk/cit. Forms will be online from July 5.
List of community and voluntary groups to have won Fast Track grants:
1. Active H&F Project 3,000
2. Amici Dance Theatre Company 7,000
3. Banooda Aid Foundation 3,000
4. Beyond Boundaries 1,500
5. Bridging Arts 700
6. Capoeira MarAzul 3,500
7. Caribbean Steel International Steelband Trust 3,000
8. Caring for Carers Association 2,000.00
9. College Park Residents Association (COPRA) 1,800
10. deafPLUS 2,000
11. Foundations UK £6,000
12. Friends of Wendell Park £2,000
13. Fulham Black Community Association £3,000
14. Fulham Horticultural Society £500
15. H&F Boys FC £2,000
16. H&F Older Persons Projects £1,500
17. H&F Pensioners Forum £1,000
18. H&F Westside Basketball Club £3,600
19. Hammersmith Blades (Canoe Club) £2,000
20. hfcyclists £2,500
21. Hurlingham Park Bowls Club £500
22. Kurdish Association for New Generations/Abroad (KANGA) £2,600
23. Kurdish Association (for Refugees) £2,600
24. Let's Create £3,500
25. Lillie Road Five A Side Football League £3,500
26. Original Club £3,000
27. Pro Art & Co £2,000
28. Ravenscourt Park Bowls Club £500
29. Realtime Arts £3,000
30. Senior Citizens Creative Arts & Luncheon Club £3,000
31. Special Olympics H&F £2,500
32. St Katherine's Taekwondo £2,500
33. The Brunswick Club for Young People £4,000
34. The London Children's Flower Society £500
35. The Polish Social & Cultural Association Ltd £1,500
36. The Saturday Club £2,500
37. United Reformed Church 50+ Social Club £1,000
38. Upper Room (St Saviour's with St Mary's) £3,000
39. Voice 4 Somali Community £3,000
40. White City Youth FC £1,500
41. Winnington Bowls Club £1,000
42. Women's Ink £1,200
Case studies
Special Olympics H&F
One group to have just benefitted from Fast Track funding is Special Olympics H&F.
The organisation helps disabled residents to take part in sports competitions and has just won a Fast Track grant of £2,500.
Special Olympics H&F run teams for people aged 16 and above in athletics, boccia, football and swimming, providing people who would usually struggle to play competitive the sport the chance to compete on a regular basis.
Athletes regularly take part in the Special Olympics and the football team play in the Middlesex County Disabled League.
Karen Linnane, 33 of Special Olympics H&F, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won a Fast Track grant and are so grateful to the council. We always struggle to pay for transport to events, new kits and entry into competition so this money will be really useful.
“The money will allow us to regularly access competition. It will be a huge motivator and will help us to keep lots of our members involved. I am really pleased and everyone at the club is delighted.”
Banooda Aid Foundation
The Banooda Aid Foundation are also jumping for joy after scooping a Fast Track grant of £3,000.
The group, based at Bishop Creighton House, in Lillie Road, Fulham, run a supplementary school - mainly for Somali children.
Around 50 youngsters, age 5 to 16, attend every week to brush up on the Maths, reading and science.
The group also organise anti-gun and knife crime initaitves, confidence building classes and advice on a whole range of topics.
Organisation chief, Abdirahman Ibrahim Haidarow, 41, said: “We are thrilled to have won such a large amount of money and are very grateful to the council for their help.
“The money will be very helpful in helping us plan the future of the organisation and will also cover our expenses. Everyone here is thrilled with the news.”
St Katherine’s tae kwon do club
With four new black belts in their ranks, the St Katherine’s tae kwon do club in White City is proving to be a powerhouse for the sport.
The club holds sessions on Fridays and Sundays at the Phoenix leisure complex in Bloemfontein Road, and is always keen to help develop new talent.
And thanks to the council’s Fast Track grant of £2,500 the group is fighting fit and ready to make a difference in the community.
“Anyone can come along to see if they like it – the first visit is free,” said helper Mark Smith, whose eight-year-old daughter is one of the new black belts.”
Juniors (five-14) train on Fridays from 4.30-6.30pm and Sundays 10.30am-12.30pm, while seniors train on Fridays from 7-9pm and Sundays, 1-3pm. Subs are £20 per month.
St Katherine’s began as a youth club 16 years ago, but relocated from its church hall venue to Phoenix to take advantage of the improved facilities there.
With more than 100 members, it works on basic self-defence, competition sparring and keep fit, with the aim being to “get the best out of every student, regardless of age and ability”, according to the instructor, master Mark Sargeant.
He became a black belt in 2002, and competes widely in a sport which has a huge international following.
Around 60 juniors and 15 seniors regularly turn up to training. The basic uniform costs around £30, but the pads, helmet and body armour required for proper competition costs more.
The club is always on the lookout for sponsorship to help pay for kit and travel costs, and any firm interested in helping can email Mark Sargeant on mark.sargeant@bt.com.
“I joined the club as an eight-year-old keen to learn self-defence and enjoy myself, and since then the club has taught me a lot about dedication, teamwork and self-belief,” he said.
The sport was given a huge boost when it featured prominently in the Beijing Olympics, and it will be a key part of London 2012 as well.
“The Beijing games really gave the students the drive to step up their training for the games in London,” agreed Mark.
Women’s Ink
A Fulham-based women’s creative writing group has been awarded £1,200 in a Fast Track grant.
Women’s Ink meets every fortnight at Orchard House, Varna Road, Fulham, and is open to women of all ages and backgrounds, who want to develop their writing skills and creativity.
The group, which originally formed ten years ago as an evening class, is benefitting from the council’s funding scheme for the first time. Women’s Ink recently published an eponymous anthology of works and the group has read at Riverside Studios and the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith.
Founder Christine Rowe, of Waldemar Avenue Mansions, Fulham, is thrilled with the grant.
“We’re highly delighted! We are so happy and we would have been grateful for whatever money we got. We recently published an anthology and hope to put another one together and also hold more reading sessions in the borough.
”What is fantastic is that we are such a diverse group and even though we have some women whose education has been disrupted, or some that write in English as their second language, you cannot tell from reading their work at all.”
The group is made up of 14 to 20 women of all ages – the youngest members are in their 20s and the eldest is in her 70s – and meet every other Wednesday to discuss their work and various writing techniques. They will also have a stall at Parsons Green Fair on July 3.
Anyone interested in joining Women’s Ink should contact Jeanne on 020 7385 7549 or email womensink@hotmail.com.
Bridging Arts
A Shepherds Bush based organisation that uses art to tackle difficult topics is set to receive £700 for a new embroidery scheme.
Called ‘Stitch’, the project will be run in the north of the borough by Bridging Arts, based in Uxbridge Road. The organisation has already held successful and interesting schemes in neighbouring boroughs such as Wandsworth and even as far as Cornwall.
Susan Roberts, co-founder and director of Bridging Arts, said: “We are creating a project with elderly people, using needlework and embroidery to break down barriers. We want to go into a residential home, mix the generations and create new friendships, as they can be such lonely places. We also want to get in an expert to give a demonstration.
“Making something through embroidery is really meaningful especially as each stitch is worked by hand.”
Bridging Arts formed in 2003 and Stitch began two years later, in the aftermath of the London bombings. The first project worked with Muslim women and aimed to change negative perceptions that emerged following the attacks and to join people from various backgrounds to learn about each other’s cultures.
For further information about getting involved with Stitch can contact Susan on 020 3301 3809 or email info@bridging-arts.com.
