Black leaders share their Lived Experience with London-Based Local Councils

31 Jul

Earlier this month we reached out to the grantees within two of our current programmes to learn about their experiences working with London-based councils over the past 12 months. The goal was to understand the lived experience of grassroots organisations working in London during a financial crisis for local councils.

The grantees are all Black or Global Majority-led organisations that provide direct support to their communities with just over half of respondents working in “Employment, education, and training*”. Both of the programmes that we are running, Make it Big with Pathway Fund and Innovate Now with City Bridge Foundation focus on capacity building and training as well as providing grants.

We were interested to see that respondents who engaged with their local councils all had positive experiences, the most commonly appreciated benefit of working with councils was the connectedness, either through updates and newsletters, or initiatives and events that allowed an improved network. Although some respondents felt their council provided insufficient communications and networking opportunities.

Of the issues these respondents faced over the last 12 months, it was clear that issues with abrupt ending or halting of funding was an issue, as well as poorly staffed councils, and lack of connectivity. One respondent shared,

“They withdrew access to the Idox funding platform without notice which was problematic. Awful at providing access to low cost meeting and office space for the voluntary sector. They have handed over community spaces to outside developers and agencies like MHDT and community groups who overprice space and use their power unreflectively and harmfully at times.” — Anonymous

When considering engagement, we learned that of the respondents who receive referrals from the London councils for their services, just over half of them have seen an increase in referrals. Over the past 12 months, many of the respondents have received less or have never received invites to meetings, roundtables or discussions with their local council's staff.

Finally, when asked what support they would like to see from their local councils, the overwhelming majority wanted improved access to core funding that was consistent and clear, increased networking across adjacent organisations, and free use of space for Black-led organisations. Below we are sharing two responses, as we would like to honour the lived experience of these respondents, their views, and the solutions they pose.

“Support in our own health and well-being as many Black-led micro community organisations have very little resources but are still achieving a lot through working many hours to make the difference supporting our community and nobody is looking out for our wellbeing. Lastly, evidence that our voice on behalf of our community is being heard with active changes, something spelt out as an outcome in our draft Theory of Change, needing Board of Directors sign-off.” — Lionel Best, BiG (Besty’s Inspirational Guidance) CIC

“Inclusive policy-making processes that involve Black-led organisations will ensure our perspectives and needs are considered. Access to council-owned facilities and resources at reduced or no cost can also aid organisations in running programmes efficiently. By implementing these measures, councils can significantly enhance the contributions of Black-led organisations to the community.” — Itunu Adesanmi, Tailored Futures CIC

This survey is part of our newly launched London Now Now campaign, which will see 30,000 Black-led local community impact projects strengthened or coming to life by 2030. Our goal is to support and empower local community leaders together who are advocating and responding to issues they have lived experience of tackling. Please sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with our progress, our advocacy, and opportunities to get involved.

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