Hear from the applicants who have a project idea to help make a difference in Brockley:
1: Project 1: A Brighter Beginning at Leander for all - £1984
Project 2: Breakspears Mews Community Garden- £1450
Project 3: Local Community Street Tree Planting Initiative- £1984
Project 4: Brockley Streets- £1984
Project 5: Community Christmas Day Lunch- £1676
Project 6: Community Seeding, Planting, Pruning and Park-inspired Art- £1344
Project 7: Make Your Own Skateboard - £1500
Project 8:Myatt Gardens Girls Football Project - £1260
Project 9:Opening Night of Brockley Max - £1984
Project 10: Play Luxmore - £1984
Donation of £250 to Travelling Cinema for Older People project
Total funding available: £17400
Minutes:
Project 1: A Brighter Beginning at Leander for all - £1984
Bright Beginnings would like to provide a holiday club at Leander Community Centre for 2 weeks during half term for children aged 5-15years old in the community. They have provided this a couple of years ago and it was a success. They have been approached by local residents and families in and around the community as the children are on the estate with nothing to do would like to know if they would be providing a holiday club and a community seaside trip for summer 2019. The centre used to offer a youth club however Peabody has removed that service six years ago. Our children will be in a happy, safe, secure environment in the community. This would be free and offered to families in the community/Brockley ward and an opportunity to mix with other nationalities and cultures.
They would also like to provide a 10 sessions 1 sewing class per week for senior citizens as they are on their management committee and this was one of their interests. One of their volunteers is a machinist and is willing to take on this project with a volunteer. The community centre has 3 sewing machines and would like to provide this project for the seniors and some young people to assist and volunteer their time.
Project 2: Breakspears Mews Community Garden- £1450
We have recently taken on the management of the herb garden and flower meadow at Brockley Station, in conjunction with BXAG and local businesses. We would like to improve the neglected area that has enabled antisocial behaviour. We would like to explore if it is possible to involve the people engaged in antisocial behaviour to take some responsibility for a space that everyone can enjoy.
As in the previous years we would like to open the garden 2 – 3 times a week throughout the growing season.
We would like to continue with our hugely successful senior sessions, so that more pensioners can join in. To achieve this we would like to run 8 x 2 hr weekly sessions with a qualified teacher again, with participants being encouraged to join in with the weekday evening and weekend openings to further their involvement and meet others.
We would also like to offer again our hugely popular one day outings or workshops for members to other gardens in London and surrounding area. We are now members of Capital Growth and as such our volunteers participate in their events and workshops.
We would like ourselves to hold regular workshops to increase our understanding and knowledge of gardening. We would like to set up our garden to be a hub providing support for people in the Brockley ward to set up their own vegetable gardens at home. We aim to advise in setting up, Soil fertility, sourcing free compost and seeds and how and when to start growing particular crops.
Some of the top framing of the raised beds have rotted and need to be replaced. We are therefore looking to pay a local tradesman in helping us to replace them. This needs to include the water station, as that has rotted as well.
We are planning an Open Day in July to coincide with the Brockley Open Studios. This will involve workshops by local artists and other interested groups. Our AGM is also an Open Day at the beginning of the growing season. We plan to incorporate a seed sowing and plant propagating workshop.
We also would need money for printing flyers and advertising for the senior sessions, family sessions, open days, outings and celebrations and to pay for some light refreshments.
Project 3: Local Community Street Tree Planting Initiative- £1984
Project 4: Brockley Streets- £1984
Brockley Streets wants to build on the ‘Healthy Streets Approach’ in Brockley, making streets healthier for local residents. National research shows the key elements for this are the same as those needed to make urban places socially and economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable. The 10 key elements are:
- Everyone feels welcome - People to choose to walk and cycle
- People feel relaxed - Easy to cross
- Clean air - Not too noisy
- Places to stop and rest - People feel safe
- Things to see and do - Shade and shelter
In spring 2018 we started building a network of likeminded residents who want to work together to help make these elements better in Brockley. We now have a web-site, research from an online survey and an awareness stand at Brockley Summer Fayre. We have reached out to other local organisations – who have been very supportive.
Research in Brockley has highlighted key local hotspots are
- Dangerous crossings
- The area is too dominated by cars and suffers from rat run traffic
- Pollution
- Access to Hilly Fields park
- Regular ‘stand-off’ between cars and the 484 bus at various bottlenecks in Brockley
- Loads of small pockets with potential to be better - cleaner, safer, tidier, more interesting, more planted, more artwork, more communal, more space for activities other than cars
Our next step is to develop and implement some immediate improvements for next year in Brockley, and helping Lewisham council achieve its target’s to reduce vehicular traffic in the borough.
To do this we want to hold a public workshop in the autumn 2018 to agree the projects for 2019, utilising experience from Sustrans of similar, successful work in other neighbourhoods.
Project 5: Community Christmas Day Lunch- £1676
The Christmas lunch has been supported by Brockley Brewery, The Talbot Pub, Lewisham College, Lewisham Social Services referrals, Age Concern etc and we welcome anyone from Brockley, Lewisham and beyond. We received a grant from Brockley Awards in 2015 which has helped us establish the success of the project and we now seek further funds to help us improve the event.
The venue for the lunch is the Howell Hall at St John’s Church and the organisers are volunteers from the church and community. We are keen to improve the kitchen facility in the hall by purchasing a heating cabinet and the tables to make the event more successful and provide ongoing facilities for the community to enjoy throughout the year
The Howell Hall is well used by members of the local community to hold family events and celebrations, as well as various exercise classes including yoga, Pilates, badminton and Taekwondo. There is a toddler stay and play group which meets twice a week and a homework after school club.
Lewisham uses the halls for a cookery club for this area of the borough and a course for life skills and employment readiness delivered by Self-help Uk, as well as a polling station. The local food bank is also in the building for the community and Vicky Foxcroft MP uses the church for her surgery.
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St John’s church is an historic listed building of which the worshipping community are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance, so that the building can be used for the use of the community.
Project 6: Community Seeding, Planting, Pruning and Park-inspired Art- £1344
Friends of Brookmill Park are making progress in aims to develop the park as a hub for horticultural skills exchange and creativity, following our previous successful application to the Assembly. Our ambition is now to maintain voluntary effort and further develop our vision. During the initial period of support, we tested several principles at modest scale. This application is about taking these to a new stage to improve impact and reach. We have advanced our aims to foster wildlife in the park. A dramatic increase has been noted in the number of insects attracted to the newly planted herbs in the formal area. Wild flowers seeded on a small section of the previously barren strip adjacent to Brookmill Road have flourished. We have made our first steps in cultivating the rare Deptford Pink in the park. A creative workshop during the summer picnic was very popular. Following planting of new roses and herbs in spring 18, the planting group instituted an emergency watering rota to keep plants alive during the prolonged drought in June, July and August. To great relief, the new roses recently bloomed for the first time.
Our application this year aims to advance development of our vision for the park to be a hub for horticultural skills exchange and creativity through three strands:
1. Planting and pruning roses and replacing lost herbs;
2. Hosting family art workshops inspired by trees and wildlife in the park;
3. Sowing wildflower seeds and creating a special bed for the Deptford Pink.
Project 7: Make Your Own Skateboard - £1500
Building on the success of previous projects, and a well-established demand, Make Your Own Skateboard offers children and their parents/carers an opportunity to work together to design and building their own fully useable skateboard to take away. The emphasis is on beneficiaries having fun, developing skills and creativity, and spending time together.
The participants will make the skateboards from scratch – engaging in every part of the process from pressing the board, to implementing their own design, to attaching trucks, wheels and grip tape.
Each person will be able to make their own skateboard, testing out their own ideas and putting their individual imprint on their work. There will also be opportunity for teamwork; hands on supporting each other to share the process.
We will also offer paint a skate deck strand for younger children. This will be undertaken in conjunction with That Place in the Park and will enable children to take part in a simple, fun activity to paint a deck that can be hung as a picture or sign.
“I learnt to not put too much glue, how to sand it, and use special tools”, participant
Project 8: Myatt Gardens Girls Football Project - £1260
At Myatt Gardens we are looking to get more of our girls active by providing girl’s only football sessions. We are looking for funding to start up an extra curricula coaching session to introduce our new girls in Years 3 & 4girl’s to football and increase the amount of time they are physically active. We are hoping this project will be the catalyst to develop a long term girl’s football project at Myatt Gardens and, potentially, hope to enter a girl’s football team into the Lewisham Primary Schools League so girls can really develop their football skills. As part of this project Myatt Gardens will host a girl’s football tournament, the girls will be playing for the MYATT GARDENS CUP. We will be employing a fully qualified FA female football coach to act as a positive role model.
Project 9: Opening Night of Brockley Max - £1984
In 18 years, Brockley Max festival has taken a simple idea of bringing the community together by engaging local people, small businesses and venue owners to showcase a wide spectrum of creative local talents across 4 wards in and around Brockley, Crofton Park, Honor Oak and Ladywell wards in the Lewisham borough of London.
Brockley Max 2019 will include 9 days of performances, performances, exhibitions and workshops covering a wide variety of art forms including music, arts, crafts, comedy, poetry, theatre and dance. The festival finale is an open-air day of performances, children’s workshops and a craft market on Hilly Fields. Brockley Max is a well-established arts and music festival that has an excellent reputation, both locally and London wide. Events are devised, organised and delivered by local volunteers and local organisations, and most are free so that the arts are accessible to everyone. The festival began with just 12 events in 2001 attracting 500 attendees and grew to 75 events in 2018 engaging 5,000 attendees that were delivered through local community engagement.
Project 10: Play Luxmore - £1984
The Play Luxmore project will create a naturalistic play area with wooden structures, new swings and a den plus install a permanent table tennis table, a drinking water fountain and replace all of the bins and dog bins in the park, along with new signage.
Friends of Luxmore Gardens was established in autumn 2016 by local residents with the aim of turning our rather neglected ‘pocket park’ into a well-resourced, well-maintained and well-used green space, creating access to nature and play and leisure opportunities for the whole community. We received a Brockley Assembly Fund of £1,000 in late 2016 to find out what people wanted in their local park and run a series of events and workshops. Along with our full monitoring report for this grant, you also have our relevant documents (constitution, equal ops etc).
This grant kick started the Love Luxmore project and with the findings of our survey and community consultation feedback we successfully applied for a £20,000 Green City Fund from the Mayor’s Office. We are finishing this project off now and the park has been transformed with planting, new seating, a bug house and more.
The play area and increasing the appeal to a wider range of ages were high on the list of concerns in our survey, and our next step was to apply for a grant from the Veolia Trust to reimagine and refurbish the play area creating play and leisure opportunities for a broader range of ages. We agreed with Lewisham Council (Parks Improvement and Services) that the 20% match funding required for this bid would come from the section 106 awarded to the council from an adjacent development.
We have just found out we have been successful with our Veolia Trust bid.
Donation of £250 to Travelling Cinema for Older People project
Total funding available: £17400