We Make Camden Kit
The We Make Camden Kit gives money and support to Camden residents and community groups who have great ideas for their communities. This fund is a little different than what you may know a Camden Giving fund to be. Panelists sit on the panel for a year at a time, and meet on a fortnightly basis to hear applications for individuals and small charities alike. The We Make Camden Fund is not an emergency kit but more so to celebrate and financially enable things happening in Camden.
You can also find out more here about We Make Camden and how it is connecting the citizens of Camden to make the borough one we want to see.
Missions
Residents and community groups can apply via Camden Giving’s website to receive up to £2,000 to deliver ideas that contribute to four core themes, also known as Camden’s missions:
Access to food for all - focusing on food poverty and sustainability, encouraging experimentation, new partnerships, entrepreneurial activity and community-led activities responding to food poverty.
Diversity in positions of power – making leadership positions more accessible and inclusive to people from a wide range of backgrounds by removing traditional barriers to entry and to develop and promote modern and inclusive leadership spaces.
Sustainable neighbourhoods - focusing on the health and sustainability of estates, creating neighbourhoods and living spaces that people love to live in.
Opportunities for children and young people – helping young people explore their interests, express creatively, and be safe to experiment and try out things so that they can make well-informed choices about their future.
Success stories
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A local teacher used the funding to empower families, particularly those from ESL (English as a second language) backgrounds, based on the understanding that young children who are not read to do worse academically.
An overarching purpose is to integrate the community and bring them together through sessions to combat loneliness and isolation in a creative way. This is by running storytelling sessions to engage families to learn about things that are currently affecting our planet and delivering stories based on how everyone can reuse, recycle and up-cycle items.
The funding also included the recruitment of mums to empower and inspire them in the sustainability of this initiative.
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A local resident from Somers Town used funding to provide a safe and supportive environment for single-parent families to bond and great lasting memories, with the aim to reduce social, isolation and loneliness among single-parent families.
The funding meant that a camping trip was made accessible to single parent families, to allow them to promote community building and collaboration among diverse groups and communities.
The respite away from the city also allowed for the opportunity to improve mental health and well-being of single-parent families.
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This project has been awarded funding twice, to teach and up-skill participants with 8-week long garment making workshops.
Based in the south of the borough, the sessions have seen pattern making, design techniques and the process of creation and repurposing.
The sessions also aim to foster communities by enabling a common activity and learning opportunity.
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A young person applied to work with the troubled youth their age, to provide them with a kit & a league to play in every Wednesday.
Funding was used to expand, to make a children’s team and to buy new equipment, including cameras to record our games and take professional shots. Funding also covered pitch bookings, kit prices and match fees, to provide free and accessible football.
This project also had the overarching opportunity to come together and meet, allowing participants a chance to voice the real problems in the area and give the players a chance to express themselves on the pitch and hopefully move onto a professional levels.
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An individual was funded to make a large and interactive sculpture of a vintage hot air balloon as a window display for The Hive, as well as running workshops to engage and inspire the young people who use the service. The initiative included young people in the creation of the final window display prop, allowing them to feel more ownership of the space.
The project included lots of symbolism relevant to the work The Hive do to communicate this to the people walking by: with the basket having a mail slot that can be used as a suggestion box or a place to write out things that you are worrying about and metaphorically let them fly away.
This work is funded by Camden Council and local businesses, through their continued commitment to supporting the brilliant ideas of local residents.
