13 March 2018

Power Station Foundation Partners on Local Roots

Battersea Power Station Foundation (BPS Foundation), the independent UK charitable body established by the Battersea Power Station shareholders, is pleased to announce it has entered into a partnership with the Walcot Foundation to fund Local Roots, a new, free support programme helping to strengthen local voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) within Wandsworth and Lambeth.

Delivered by Community Learning and Empowerment Network (CLEN) and Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), Local Roots aims to support individual organisations to find innovative solutions to the challenges they face, and to foster peer networking and collaboration among VCOs in the two boroughs.

The objectives of this programme are to achieve:

  • Stronger, more resilient organisations as demonstrated by relevant improvements (e.g. stronger governance structures, improved monitoring/evaluation systems, increased fundraising capacity, more effective staffing/volunteer management systems)
  • Increased collaboration between local organisations as demonstrated by examples of effective partnership working or successfully attracting funds through partnership bids.

As part of this programme, £240,000 over three years has been awarded to Battersea Arts Centre and Community Learning and Empowerment Network (CLEN). Battersea Arts Centre’s training workshops and events will centre around Scratch, a process which encourages people to test and develop new ideas with members of the public. Scratch began as a process used by artists to make theatre. In the last five years, Battersea Arts Centre has supported social enterprises, charities and cultural organisations to use Scratch to build their capacity, resilience and leadership skills. 

Barbra Mazur, Director of the BPS Foundation, said:
“This is a really exciting initiative that we are proud to be involved with and we believe this strategy will be highly effective in delivering visible results. The Foundation is constantly looking for new and innovative schemes that make a real difference to the local community – using Scratch in capacity building is one that we are keen to nurture. 

“We would encourage any local Wandsworth and Lambeth organisations interested in improving their overall proficiency to get in contact.”

Daniel Chapman, Grants Manger of the Walcot Foundation said:
“Local community groups are providing vital services for local residents in an incredibly difficult landscape of funding cuts and rising demand.  

We believe that this service will help organisations not just to survive but to thrive and grow. It will also build connections in the community that will enable groups to tackle poverty and create opportunities together.”

Since it launched, the BPS Foundation has awarded 110 grants to 100 organisations, totaling £3.9 million. Recipients range from a diversity of charities and local organisations providing vital community services such as mentoring for local disadvantaged young people; tackling loneliness and isolation in the elderly; tree planting and horticulture; arts, music, fitness and wellbeing projects; assistance for disabled residents; tackling youth violence and helping ex-offenders into employment.

The Walcot Foundation is Lambeth’s independent grantmaking charity with roots dating from the 17th century. The Foundation aims to break cycles of financial deprivation for people living in Lambeth, seeking to tackle poverty by creating opportunity. Over the ten years to March 2017, it made grants amounting to almost £19 million: 2,189 grants to individuals and 1,434 grants to organisations and schools.

CLEN’s founders have over twenty years’ experience supporting community groups and networks – including nearly a decade working in Lambeth – and will be providing bespoke consultancy, helping organisations with fundraising, governance, business planning and other areas of development.