The Big Local SW11 area was in the London Borough of Wandsworth, spanning council estates, new-build flats, and terraced streets. The area was north of Clapham Junction station and east of Battersea Park, with Falcon Road (home to shops and services) running through the middle. There were ample community facilities, including places of worship, youth clubs, leisure centres, and estate playgrounds and club rooms.
In 2021, the area had a population of 18,263 and was more densely populated than London as a whole, with nearly three times as many people per square kilometre (ONS, 2022a; 2023a). It was more ethnically diverse than the wider borough, with 34 per cent of residents identifying as White British, 22 per cent as Black, and 12 per cent as Asian (ONS, 2023b; 2023c; 2023d). The Big Local area had pockets of deprivation (with three neighbourhoods in the top 20 per cent most deprived in England), and poorer physical and mental health than Wandsworth or London (MHCLG, 2019a; 2019b).
Known locally as Big Local SW11, the partnership was generally formed of residents already involved in community activity. This helped with building community connections but also led to capacity challenges as members had other commitments. The partnership addressed this challenge with paid workers and a rotating chair role.
Big Local SW11 had several priorities, including improving residents’ wellbeing and sense of belonging, and ensuring community ownership of spaces and services. The Covid-19 pandemic brought about a greater focus on mental health and wellbeing, responding to loneliness and social isolation within the community.
From early on there was a sense that in their part of the country, £1m could not do much to help solve systemic issues. So, the partnership sought to work with other organisations to pool resources and work towards shared goals.
From 2016 to 2019 the partnership led a series of events – Battersea Together – bringing stakeholders together to identify local issues. Alongside this, with input from 55 local organisations they produced a ‘State of the Sector’ report, detailing the local role and value of the voluntary and community sector. The partnership found that social isolation, loneliness, and poor mental health were key community issues where organisational cooperation could have the biggest impact.
So, the Battersea Alliance was formed – led by the partnership, with Big Local funding used for paid staff and consultancies to manage daily operations and advocate with key stakeholders. The partnership also had a grants scheme focused on developing new projects, which became the Community and Belonging Forum. Together, these initiatives distributed £600,000 to support residents’ wellbeing.
A Big Local partnership was a group made up of at least eight people that guided the overall direction of delivery in a Big Local area.
Big Local SW11 wanted organisations to collaborate, increasing resources to support residents’ mental health and wellbeing. The partnership prioritised identifying local organisations with physical spaces due to a local lack of affordable venues. Seven groups and organisations were brought together to form Battersea Alliance – Big Local SW11, Katherine Low Settlement, St Peter’s Church, Integrate CIC, Caius House, Carney’s Community, and Providence House.
The Alliance was developed over three years, to enable organisations to communicate, build trust, and commit to shared objectives. By working together, they hoped to limit competition, access larger pots of funding, and grow the local support offer by collectively reaching more communities.
The Alliance felt it had a positive impact on organisations and residents, facilitating connections to build capacity and strengthen the local community and voluntary sector. Big Local funding helped unlock extra resources – the Alliance pooled £900,000 (beyond initial Big Local funding) and enabled access to in-kind resources (like staff time and venues) for Alliance members and grant recipients.
Residents accessing activities and services reported increased confidence, self-esteem, and mental wellbeing, and the Alliance’s relational approach was reported to enable signposting between organisations, creating an ‘ecosystem of care’. Collaboration strengthened organisational capacity, helping improve local resilience in the sector. For example, organisations with building maintenance staff supported organisations with maintenance needs, and peer support helped staff doing demanding frontline roles.
The Alliance found it challenging to be seen as a united network, but hoped to achieve this by setting up a new board after Big Local. Partnership members felt they learnt a lot about working with power-holders, including adapting to other organisations’ strategies. They also recognised that while Big Local enabled them to experiment in building a resilient community sector, statutory bodies were traditionally unable to fund projects in this way.
As Big Local wrapped up, it became important for Battersea Alliance to expand their coverage, source further funding, and engage key stakeholders (like local authorities and the NHS) to ensure its long-term future. They hosted a summit to showcase their work and invite stakeholders to be involved, with strong engagement across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Battersea Alliance and the approach to funding grassroots organisations was a key legacy of Big Local SW11. The partnership was proud to have played an important role in kickstarting local activity that was going to continue long into the future.
Big Local SW11 created the Community and Belonging Forum to support initiatives addressing mental and physical wellbeing. It was an informal, supportive network aimed at grassroots organisations and residents wanting to make a difference in their community.
The forum involved fortnightly, online meetings of up to 20 people, which had been running for over five years by the end of the Big Local. It was designed to encourage attendees to create and test ideas by connecting them to resources, venues, training, further funding, and supporting the development of governance processes. It also provided a space for groups to support each other, which reduced competition and increased collaboration, leading to better signposting and greater ability to meet residents’ needs.
Having an existing grants scheme through the forum enabled the partnership to respond proactively to the Covid-19 pandemic, adapting existing practices to form the Covid-19 Battersea Community Support Fund. This fund distributed £100,000 to 26 local projects that supported around 3,150 residents in vulnerable situations.
The partnership reflected that the forum and flexibility of Big Local funding helped them nurture new projects and improve access to funding, supporting groups that may not have otherwise had the resources to survive the pandemic. Both the Community and Belonging Forum and the Covid-19 fund were named among the partnership’s proudest achievements.
By 2024, the Community and Belonging Forum had allocated grants to support 30 existing groups and help create 26 new groups. Several initiatives provided services to specific groups of residents, helping tackle social isolation, increase physical activity, and improve wellbeing.
The Agoe Empowerment Network CIO was funded to set up a support network for mothers identifying as part of global majority ethnic groups. Support included signposting, assisting with benefits applications, and English language training. Service users reported a greater sense of community belonging, and many went on to volunteer for the group.
Two initiatives enabled residents to make new connections and build confidence. Battersea Befriending Network matched befrienders with people experiencing social isolation or poor mental health, for one-to-one chats, outings, and group activities. Guys Room was a weekly online meetup for men, where they could process difficult topics and emotions, and access peer support. Participants reported improved wellbeing and growing confidence.
Fitwell provided a free women’s fitness class (attended by about 240 women), with opportunities for attendees to stay after sessions, encouraging friendships and enabling signposting to support. The class was mainly attended by Muslim women, who preferred not to exercise in mixed-gender spaces. Similarly, Disco Dance was a free dance class for women, aimed at providing a non-judgemental space for connection and joy, and largely attended by over-55s. Attendees experienced improved physical and mental health, motivation to exercise, and a sense of belonging.
The Big Local SW11 partnership wanted to ensure their priorities for community belonging extended to young people, recognising that they often faced negative external influences, or stereotyping and racial profiling. Big Local funding was used to provide opportunities to build connections, skills, and confidence, and the involvement of three long-standing youth organisations (Caius House, Carney’s Community, and Providence House) in the Battersea Alliance increased these opportunities.
Battersea Youth Voice supported marginalised young people to feed into the Alliance and trained young people to develop a podcast. Young people could also access more support across the Alliance network by connecting to organisations beyond their first point of contact. For example, a young resident received support from one organisation and developed their leadership skills, enabling them to lead workshops and mentor young people across other organisations.
Community and Belonging Forum grants provided more opportunities, like the SW Lions – a twice-weekly after-school football club for young men (especially those at risk of gang involvement and violence) to build social connections. Participants reported that it helped them spend time outdoors, meet people, build relationships, and develop confidence.
Young people reflected that participating in projects, support, or volunteering strengthened their feelings of belonging, and being given leadership roles made them feel like they were trusted. The partnership felt this work encouraged young people to broaden their networks, meet people, and explore the community, leading to greater youth involvement in local activities. The partnership reflected that without this groundwork in growing confidence as community members, there would not have been as much youth engagement with the Battersea Community Festival.
Providing opportunities for residents to come together was an early priority for Big Local SW11, to convey what community was and combat residents’ perceptions of Big Local activities and support not being ‘for them’. The partnership created a large street festival, modelled on a similar approach elsewhere in the borough.
The Falcon Road Festival was held annually between 2017 and 2019, and paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the pandemic, the partnership hosted a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration, and the annual street festival was revived as the Battersea Community Festival.
With community stalls, arts and crafts activities, music, sports sessions, a funfair, and Battersea Children’s Zoo, the festival typically attracted over 5,000 visitors and up to 70 volunteers. Over the years, the partnership secured additional funding and in-kind support, such as Riverside Radio CIC running the stage. With organisations hosting stalls, Alliance members and grant recipients leading sessions, and Wandsworth Council’s Youth Bus, the festival highlighted local services, and the benefits of collaboration and community-led approaches to meeting local needs.
The partnership reflected that events like the festival enabled connections between residents, across diverse backgrounds and interests. Most importantly, they provided a chance for residents to see the value of coming together, supporting and engaging with each other.
Each Big Local area received approximately £1.2 million (ranging from £1.199 mil to 1.209 mil) to spend over 10–15 years, depending on how much additional funding they accessed from Local Trust to address specific needs. For example, to bring people together at the start of the programme or to access training and support. This has been categorised for areas and at the programme level based on reports received from areas.
Partnerships chose their own priorities and categories for reporting, and were encouraged to use broad categories so they could use the funding flexibly. All areas spent a significant amount of money on ‘Big Local delivery costs’ such as workers’ salaries, stationery and IT equipment. You can find out more about programme level spend in this article. This is how SW11 Big Local told Local Trust they used their Big Local funding.
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) (2019a) ‘English indices of deprivation 2019’. (Accessed 13 March 2025)
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) (2019b) ‘English indices of deprivation 2019: Health deprivation and disability domain’. (Accessed 13 March 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2022a) ‘UK Census 2021: All persons’. (Accessed 13 March 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023a) ‘UK Census 2021: Population density’. (Accessed 28 May 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023b) ‘UK Census 2021: Ethnic group: White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British’. (Accessed 13 March 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023c) ‘UK Census 2021: Ethnic group: Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African’. (Accessed 13 March 2025)
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2023d) ‘UK Census 2021: Ethnic group: Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh’. (Accessed 13 March 2025)
