Community groups across South London delight at share of £4m National Lottery funding

BY JAMES TWOMEY
james@slpmedia.co.uk

Community organisations will be celebrating today after being awarded nearly £4million in National Lottery funding.

Across South London, 122 organisations have received National Lottery funding since June, and this new round of funding will help community groups in need of cash.

One of the community organisations to receive funding is Fairbeats! Music at Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers.

Its £30,000 funding will support young refugees, asylum seekers and new migrants by providing music-making opportunities for children aged three to 14 which include learning the ukulele, guitar, flute, fife and drums, as well as songwriting and singing sessions.

The sessions will take place at Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers in Copleston Centre, Copleston Road, Peckham and the Love to Learn Homework Club at Katherine Low Settlement, 108 Battersea High Street, Battersea.

Catherine Carter, co-founder of Fairbeats! Music, said: “The funding will allow the young Londoners we work with in Southwark and Wandsworth to have the opportunity to learn new musical skills and create new music together.

“National Lottery Funding will enable more children from the newly-arrived communities we work with to get involved with what we do.

A parent of a beneficiary at Fairbeats! Music, said: “Before he was very shy to ask me questions, especially at home, but now he asks a lot of questions.

“He asks a lot of questions around music. I notice that as well. When he’s playing, I play with him; I also learn.

“Fairbeats! teaches him music and he teaches me how to play, so we both play together and we bond.”

In Greenwich, the Remark! Community received £159,736 and the project will use some of the funding to continue running their two Deaf Clubs in South London.

In Lewisham, the Community Sports Coaching Foundation received £10,000 and the funding will be used to deliver a series of activities that help girls and their mothers, female guardians and carers, to challenge issues surrounding social isolation, which will build levels of confidence, self-esteem and well-being.

These clubs provide support for British Sign Language users, allowing older people the opportunity to come and meet people, socialise and make friends.

Sacha Rose-Smith, from the The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Young people are the experts in their own lives and we are able to support an exciting range of organisations and projects delivering the activities that they have told us they want in their communities.”