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The voluntary sector plays a crucial role in Hammersmith, making life easier for thousands of people. From hospice care to mental health support, the services offered across the borough change lives.

We’ve been supporting grassroots causes for many years, by awarding Community Grants to groups that make a tangible impact in our area, including those working to alleviate poverty, enrich children’s lives, and help some of the most vulnerable people in Hammersmith.

Our July grants round saw 15 groups awarded a total of £106,798. These include:

Woman’s Trust: £15,000

10+ women in Hammersmith will benefit from counselling sessions to help them process the trauma caused by domestic abuse. You can find out more about the work of Woman’s Trust here.

Nubian Life Resource Centre Ltd: £14,374

The charity is using its grant to fund a part-time member of staff, who will co-ordinate befriending services to support older people in Hammersmith’s African and Caribbean community.

Barons Court Project: £12,000

This grant is helping to cover the salary of a Project Worker. Their role will include welcoming guests, offering one-to-one advice sessions, organising outreach volunteers, signposting people to other services, and running a weekly wellbeing group. Read our case study on Barons Court Project.

Solidarity Sports: £7,504

Solidarity Sports is putting its grant towards the cost of running Champions Club. The club is a weekly after-school academic programme for children aged 6-12 who are living in poverty. Find out more about Solidarity Sports.

This New Ground: £7,500

More adults with a learning disability will soon be able to take part in creative and skills-building activities, as This New Ground can now afford to hold an extra studio day each week. Read our case study on This New Ground.

White City Theatre Project: £7,500

This grant will help to ensure young people can continue to take part in weekly youth theatre workshops led by a trained practitioner.

John Betts Primary School: £7,000

As with our last grant to the school, this new funding will be used to provide play therapy for up to 32 pupils. The children will be supported to work through challenging experiences that they may otherwise struggle to talk about. You can find out more about play therapy at John Betts Primary School here.

Women Aid and Empowerment: £7,000

Around 100 people in White City and Wendell Park will be able to take part in inclusive exercise classes such as Zumba and chair-based yoga. Read an article on Women Aid and Empowerment.

Eastern Sudan Community Association (ESCA): £5,000

ESCA is using its grant to deliver a 12-month project for girls in Hammersmith. The girls will take part in Powerleague football sessions and other activities. Low-income families will have their fees subsidised.

W12 Together: £5,000

A Clinician for Narrative Therapy will work with young people who have left Local Authority Care, helping them to move forward with their lives.

Parentsactive CIC: £5,000

The CIC will use its grant to engage with vulnerable families in Hammersmith who are caring for disabled children or adults.

Fulham Reach Boat Club (FRBC): £5,000

Young people will benefit from free holiday clubs where they’ll take part in activities they may otherwise not be able to try, such as kayaking and rowing. Read more about Fulham Reach Boat Club.

Intergenerational Music Making: £4,500

The CIC brings different generations of people together through music, helping to reduce isolation and loneliness. Our grant will help the CIC to work with new partners across Avonmore, Brook Green and Shepherd’s Bush Green.

St John’s Hospice: £4,000

More people will be able to choose to stay in their own home in the last stages of their life, as St John’s Hospice is expanding its vital Hospice@Home service into LBH&F.

West London Death Café: £420

The grant will contribute towards West London Death Café hiring a room at the Bush Theatre so that people can talk freely about death and dying.

How to apply for a HUC Community Grant

We’re keen to hear from smaller, local organisations in our area of benefit, which have a strong connection to their community and a working knowledge of the local area. Your project can be one-off or ongoing. What interests us most is the difference you’ll make to the local people most in need.

Please complete our Eligibility Quiz before applying and then contact us at grants@hamunitedcharities.com to tell us about your project. We like to talk to applicants before you apply to get a better understanding of what you’re doing and answer any questions you may have.

Find out more 

• Learn more about our Community Grants

• Read our grants FAQs

• Hear from other organisations we’ve supported

• Read more about how to apply

Hammersmith United Charities holds regular network meetings for our grant holders, where people can come together, learn from one another and collaborate for the benefit of the community.

Our last meeting included a presentation about refugees and asylum seekers, led by West London Welcome. The charity discussed current refugee and migrant issues around the country and support services in our area.

There are at least 13,700 asylum seekers in London and 41% of people who live here were not born in the UK. West London Welcome recognises that, while refugees, migrants and asylum seekers may need support with essentials such as housing and health needs, they also deserve to experience the everyday things that make life enjoyable, from lunch with friends, to music, exercise and creative hobbies.

The charity was formed by a group of Hammersmith residents in 2017. Today, it has a team of 10 staff members and 135 local volunteers, together representing 70 nationalities. A wide range of activities are held at its community centre, including English lessons, cookery workshops and yoga classes.

One of West London Welcome’s aims is to help dispel the myths surrounding people from a migrant and refugee background, so its presentation included points such as:

• Seeking asylum is a legal right. With so few safe routes available for people fleeing war and persecution to come to the UK, many people have little choice but to undertake a perilous Channel crossing by boat if they wish to seek asylum here.
• Asylum seekers are not allowed to work or to claim benefits. Those living in hotels receive aeroplane-style meals and £9.95 a week.
• Fewer than 1% of the world’s refugees live in the UK.
• People arriving by small boat account for only 5% of total migration to the UK.

Download West London Welcome’s myth-busting resource for more information.

Other organisations offering support

Refugees are disadvantaged in many ways, so they’re often entitled to support from other organisations in the borough, including a number of our current and previous grant holders. For example:

• Hammersmith & Fulham Law Centre provides legal advice and representation to people in need. Much of its work is around immigration and the seeking of asylum.
• Lawyers4Learners runs free public speaking workshops in schools to help build children’s confidence. Many of the children it supports speak English as a second language.
• Hikayetna brings refugees and migrants together for mutual support and help in specific areas such as training and mentoring in the creative industry.
• Intergenerational Music Making uses the international language of music to bring people together from across the whole of the community.
• The Kulan Foundation supports adults and children from a migrant background to gain skills and qualifications.
• Somali Parents works with migrant families to support children’s education.
• FORWARD is working to end the faith-based and ritual abuse of African women and girls. 

Find out more

You can read a case study on West London Welcome here. For more information about the charity’s services, please visit its website: www.westlondonwelcome.com

Some children look forward to a fun-filled summer holiday. They might be at a sports club one day, a drama club the next and out playing with friends the rest of the week.

However, many children will barely leave their homes. If your parents are struggling to cover the essentials, it’s unlikely that they’ll have money spare for ‘fun’ things. It’s hardly surprising then, that children from low-income households are far less likely to take part in organised out-of-school activities.

What’s more, as these children are less likely to have a garden or easy access to green spaces, they have fewer opportunities to play outdoors, especially if they live in urban areas. As a result, children from a low-income household are more likely to experience social isolation over the summer holidays, as it’s harder for them to meet up with friends.

It’s not just their mental health that suffers over the school holidays. With no free school meals to fall back on, they’re less likely to eat nutritious meals. One in five parents worry about being able to feed the whole family over the summer break.

Thankfully, some schemes do offer fully funded or low-cost activities over the school holidays, mainly through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. School-age children who receive benefits-related free school meals are automatically eligible, and places are often also available to other children. Free healthy lunches are available at many of the clubs.

Fully funded summer clubs in Hammersmith & Fulham

H&F’s HAF programme gives children the chance to try a wide range of activities, from animal care to sports, graffiti art, DJing and more. Many of the clubs are led by our current or former grant holders:

• Fulham Reach Boat Club offers Free Water Sports Weeks over the summer. As well as water-based activities such as kayaking, teenagers can try boxing, tennis and other sports.
• Bubble & Squeak‘s Summer Holiday Club runs from 10am to 2pm every weekday. Activities include sports, gardening, cooking, crafts and free play.
• The Sulgrave Club runs both a junior and senior holiday club. Both include outings and other activities.
• DanceWest holds dance classes at Sands End Arts & Community Centre for children aged seven to 12.
• Solidarity Sports works with 250+ children who are recovering from traumatic experiences. Its summer club sees 30 children go on a PGL adventure holiday in Dorset.
• Urbanwise’s Summer Holiday Club gives children the chance to enjoy being outdoors, playing sport, trying STEM activities and more.

Some of the clubs above are now full. However, there are many others to choose from at www.lbhf.gov.uk/holiday-activities-and-food-programme. It’s also worth registering to go on the waiting lists.

Stuart’s life changed significantly when he suffered a stroke in 2020, aged just 56. He explains, “I woke up one morning and phoned the doctors to say something was wrong. They told me that I’d better get to the hospital, as they thought I’d had a stroke. When I got there, the doctor said, ‘You’ve got nerve damage,’ and sent me home. I got a call from the stroke unit the next day. They said, “You need to come in now because they shouldn’t have discharged you.” So, it was a stroke, but I also have nerve damage.

“After a while using a manual wheelchair, I developed carpal tunnel syndrome, so I now use an electric wheelchair. I can only stand for a minute as I have a compression fracture of the spine. I get pain on a daily basis. You don’t get used to it, but you cope with it.”

Stuart was in between jobs when he had his stroke. Unable to continue his career in childcare, Stuart moved into temporary accommodation but was evicted and housed in a hotel for several months. Luckily, we were able to offer Stuart a place at John Betts House. Three years later, needing a larger flat to make it easier to manoeuvre his wheelchair around, Stuart transferred to Sycamore House.

He told us, “My new flat is really nice. It’s a lot more spacious. All the doors are bigger and it’s more free flowing, so I don’t have to twist and turn. Someone came to check the water the other day and said, ‘Oh, your flat is amazing.’ I’ve been creative with the décor and have some unusual houseplants, which are thriving.

“The garden is a nice quiet space. It’s lovely to sit out in. I can’t do much gardening, but I can offer advice!”

A carer comes to support Stuart every day, but he likes the security of having staff onsite at Sycamore House. “We also have Careline here, so if I do have a fall or if I need an ambulance, I can just pull the cord and they’ll deal with it. I’m not alone.

“It’s a lovely little community at Sycamore. We do a lot of socialising. There are events going on that you can get involved with and people know your name. We’ve got an LGBTQ+ party coming up, which is open to everyone. I’m doing the music for it.”

Stuart also appreciates the location of Sycamore House, as he’s able to reach the shops and cafés using his mobility scooter.

While Stuart grew up in South Africa, he’s lived in Hammersmith for almost 30 years now and is very settled at Sycamore House. “I can’t see myself moving again. This is home.”