A city farm and a community café are among 10 inspirational projects to win Mayoral funding to increase volunteering opportunities for young people and the wider community across London.
They will each receive £10,000 from Team London, the Mayor’s volunteering programme, through its Small Grants scheme.
The projects include FoodCycle, whose volunteers create nutritious meals for people at risk of food poverty and social isolation; and Green Corridor, who are working with 14 – 25 year olds to transform a redundant allotment into a thriving public wildlife space.
Now in its third year, the Team London Small Grants scheme was established to help expand vital local projects and provide more volunteering opportunities for Londoners across the capital.
So far, £813,500 has been given to support 152 projects and fund almost 12,000 volunteers. The focus this year is to increase volunteering amongst young people and other groups who may face difficulty in finding suitable opportunities.
The 10 organisations to receive a Team London grant this year are:
Foodcycle – training unemployed young people to create affordable meals and help run the Community Café in Bromley-by-Bow.
Green Corridor - engaging young volunteers (14-25) to turn an allotment at the heart of Heathrow Airport, into a thriving wildlife space for the local community.
TimeBank - matching business mentors with young people 16-24 who have been in care.
The Maypole Project - recruiting volunteers to support young people with complex illnesses to engage in sporting activities.
The Hebe Foundation - a business and leadership project using peer volunteers aged 17 and adults to teach a wide range of transferable skills including marketing, pitching, buying and selling to 14-19 year olds
Selfless - training volunteers to be 'London Health Ambassadors' and share important health messages within hard-to-reach communities.
Sutton Community Farm - farm based buddying scheme that will teach and mentor young volunteers, some of whom have learning difficulties or other disabilities, about managing a farm and working with others.
Wide Horizons - supporting volunteers to transform a five acre area in South London into well managed woodland.
Project Dirt - enabling Team London volunteers to access a wider range of small locally based community projects.
Spacehive - matching Civic Crowdfunding community projects with volunteers.
Since being set up in 2011, Team London volunteers have given over one million hours of their time to volunteering across a huge range of projects.
Team London Ambassadors and other volunteers were one of the big successes of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Mayor pledged to build on their enthusiasm.
Over the last two years, 34,000 Team London volunteers are estimated to have undertaken some form of volunteering.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “These small organisations are doing fantastic work and it is wonderful that increasing numbers of young people are willing to give their time to build stronger communities and improve the capital. The beauty of volunteering is that in giving time they also gain skills and experience that can be hugely beneficial to their future employment opportunities. I encourage as many young people as possible to visit the Team London website and get involved.”
Veronica Wadley, the Mayor’s Senior Advisor on volunteering, said: “These are all great projects that cover a real range of volunteering opportunities. A key mission for Team London is to boost volunteering in local communities and the Small Grants scheme enables us to do this whilst increasing the number of young Londoners getting involved. Volunteering helps to increase people’s confidence, motivation and communication skills, and can therefore act as an open door between many out of work youngsters and employment.”
Mary McGrath, FoodCycle Chief Executive, said: "FoodCycle is powered by groups of amazing volunteers across the country who come out rain or shine to transform surplus ingredients into delicious three-course meals for vulnerable people in their community. We are delighted that Team London has chosen to support our Pie in the Sky Community Cafe in Bromley by Bow this year - their support enables us to work with more volunteer trainees to help them develop new skills and build their confidence. Our café gives volunteers the chance to work in a busy kitchen environment and develop a range of skills - from teamwork and communication to food safety and barista training - as well as gain the all-important confidence that will help them to find employment."
Notes to editors
Team London: Team London is the Mayor of London's ambitious programme to mobilise an army of volunteers across the capital. The aim is to improve life in London through programmes that will reduce crime, increase opportunities for youth and improve quality of life by cleaning and greening London and building stronger neighbourhoods. http://volunteerteam.london.gov.uk
FoodCycle: FoodCycle is an award-winning charity founded in 2008 that builds communities by combining volunteers, surplus food and spare kitchen spaces to create nutritious meals for people at risk from food poverty and social isolation. FoodCycle runs 18 volunteer-powered community projects across the UK and has served over 100,000 meals since starting out in 2009. FoodCycle’s Pie in the Sky Community Café works to promote healthy eating in the community – an area of poor health outcomes and high deprivation – and support volunteer trainees to develop the skills and confidence needed to gain employment. Last year the cafe supported 39 volunteer trainees into employment, education, or training. www.foodcycle.org.uk / @foodcycle