Community Southwark awarded grant from National Grid to fund Support Officer for local BAME community

National Grid has awarded the latest funding from its Community Grants Programme (CGP) to Community Southwark. The grant will help the organisation’s dedicated Voluntary Council Service (VCS) Support Officer in their role of empowering the borough’s growing BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethic) network. Community Southwark has been awarded a total of £16,747 from National Grid due to its proximity to the London Power Tunnels, a £1bn project rewiring South London’s electricity network.

Community Southwark is the umbrella body for the borough’s voluntary and community sector. It provides support to and builds the capacity of more than 1,000 local not-for-profit organisations. The organisation has recently employed a dedicated VCS Support Officer to deliver development, sustainability, and funding advice to the increasing number of BAME community groups.

This grant will allow the VCS Officer to continue to support these local organisations and the newly formed BAME Network, to ensure the voice of minority groups can be heard. The VCS Support Officer will offer sustainable support to help the local community become more resilient, tackle inequality and lobby for change across the borough and beyond.

Ben Muncey, Lead Project Manager at London Power Tunnels, commented: “We’re delighted to be able to award a CGP grant to Community Southwark. National Grid is committed to working with local communities impacted by the London Power Tunnels project, and we look forward to seeing the positive changes the VCS Support Officer can bring to local communities across Southwark.”

Krzysztof Mikata-Pralat, Director of Community Southwark, commented: “We are very grateful for the generous support we received from National Grid. Their grant will enable us to support a number of ethnic minority groups throughout Southwark over the coming months. We know that the communities those groups serve are often marginalised despite many unmet needs. We are honoured to be able to serve them.”

The funding received by Community Southwark funding is just one of 39 grants given out by National Grid’s Community Grant Programme this financial year, totalling £477,472. The grant programme is aimed at community organisations and charities in areas where National Grid’s work is impacting local people through operations and site activities.

Through the CGP, National Grid is committed to supporting projects that provide a range of social, economic and environmental benefits. The London Power Tunnels project also has an ongoing partnership with social enterprise Connectr, to deliver a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers outreach programme aiming to reach 100,000 secondary school pupils across the project route.