Community Grants Fund

The Brent Health Matters Community Grants Fund looks to offer grants to local community organisations for Brent-based projects that can draw on the knowledge, skills and ability of local people to make a difference in their community.

The Fund seeks to support projects that:

• focus on addressing health inequalities in Brent by targeting the broader factors that affect health.
• focus on health awareness and encourage healthy lifestyles.
• raise awareness and provide resources for emotional and mental health support within the identified groups.
• promote the importance of preventative screenings, health education, and early intervention programmes.
• encourage immunisation/vaccination uptake through awareness, outreach and accessibility for the target groups.
• improve health and wellbeing for an identified group.
• have clear and measurable outcomes that demonstrate impact.

The 2023 - 24 grant fund awarded £433,000 to 46 local projects. Below is an excellent example of a project from that round of funding and two amazing examples of how previous grantees worked to improve health outcomes for their local community:

Good advice

In 2023/24 Citizens Advice Brent was awarded £10,000 to support residents in Brent to access free, confidential and impartial information and advice.

“The Brent Health Matters (BHM) Grant has made a significant and tangible difference to our service and the community we support,” said Chief Executive Officer, Raj Kapoor. “It allowed us to recruit and train seven full-time Information Assistant and Advice volunteers, which has greatly increased our capacity to respond to growing demand”.

“Thanks to this additional resource, we’ve been able to assist many more residents in accessing vital support — from energy grants and Warm Home Discounts to discretionary local authority funds, cost-of-living payments, and charitable applications for essential household items and school clothing. This has had a real, immediate impact on the lives of local people facing financial hardship.

“We’re extremely grateful for this opportunity from BHM, which has helped us deliver meaningful, lasting outcomes for those most in need. BHM staff have been a joy to work with.”

Royal seal of approval

In 2022/23 Urban Growth received a £5,410 grant to deliver workshops in the newly created garden and sensory space for residents at Tudor Gardens Kingsbury, a specialist accommodation for adults with learning difficulties.

Anna Godefroy, Managing Director of Urban Growth, said, “The project brought people together, building social bonds and reducing isolation.”

Following the work to create the garden, Urban Growth received the King’s Award for Enterprise, which celebrates the success of innovative businesses.

Awarded by King Charles III, the award recognised and praised Urban Growth’s approach to community engagement, sustainability, health and wellbeing.

“We are so proud to win this award, and the Brent Health Matters support was a big milestone for our work,” said Anna.

Help to access services

Brent Irish Advisory Service (BIAS)

In 2021/22 Brent Irish Advisory Service (BIAS) was awarded £19,435 to run its Digi-Pals project.

Health inequalities often come about because some residents find it harder to access or even know about services.

“We recognised that a lot of people are excluded from the help they need simply because they aren’t great with technology,” explained Ellen Stafford from BIAS.

“Lockdown highlighted that so much information and support is online and that not being good with phones and computers was a huge problem amongst older Irish people.”

The BIAS Digi-Pals project included regular ‘drop-in’ sessions at hubs in Cricklewood and Harlesden. “We ran around 300 one-to-one sessions with over 150 older people living in Brent throughout the year,” said Ellen.

Margaret Carroll, 71, from Harlesden was a regular at the Clocher Court hub. She said, “It’s been wonderful. I now order my repeat prescriptions through my phone and I’m using online banking. I’m also using WhatsApp and Facetime to speak to my sister in America and my five grandchildren in Ireland. It’s brilliant.”