Plaistow South

Empowering young people through a regular market 

During the first five years of the programme Big Local funding was used to establish and organise the Plaistow Youth Market. The Plaistow South partnership collaborated with NewVic (a Sixth Form College), a secondary school, and other local youth organisations. The aim was for young people to learn about running market stalls and earn money through selling their products, such as African print hair accessories, plants, and halal sweets. 

A youth enterprise worker was employed to support the young people and markets, and Big Local funding was invested in equipment, publicity, and small grants for stallholders. The markets became a popular event, held regularly throughout the year, either outdoors in open space on The Greenway or in community venues. 

23 markets were held over the period and attracted around 2,800 visitors. Each market had 15 stalls with two or more traders each. The market ended with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, however for the five years it was running it helped young people to further build confidence and new skills.

Greening Plaistow and re-imagining communal spaces

As part of an early priority to celebrate the people and places of Plaistow South, Big Local funding was used to commission a 100-metre-long community mural next to the Newham University Hospital entrance on Glen Road. The mural was launched at an event in Autumn 2017. The process engaged the community through local schools, the college, youth clubs, and hospitals. Over 1,000 people were involved in workshops to design, paint, and mount the 75 panels making up the mural. The panels focussed on four themes: history, health, education, and community and diversity.

Greening Plaistow was a constant theme for the partnership, and Big Local funding was used to employ two part-time green space community workers. They promoted and supported work to re-imagine, develop, and use parts of The Greenway (a 7km walking and cycling route across the area) as an open and useable space for residents. They also helped carry out small-scale makeovers on several green patches along residential streets, host a Bloomin’ Plaistow front gardens competition, and run a gardening group.

One of the most significant developments was a community orchard on unused land along The Greenway, adjacent to the hospital. The partnership worked with The Conservation Volunteers to establish the Green Gym volunteer group to develop the site. The orchard was used for events and activities run by the partnership and by local organisations, including planting, tree decorating, outdoor mindfulness sessions, Easter egg hunts, and a harvest festival. 

The Plaistow South Big Local team supported the Green Gym volunteer group to become an independently constituted organisation – Plaistow Greenway Orchard – which successfully applied for grants to continue their work beyond Big Local. The Greenway Orchard and the volunteer group was one of the partnership’s main legacies, helping residents connect more with and learn about nature on their doorstep.

Supporting groups through small grants 

The Plaistow South partnership provided a small-grants scheme throughout the Big Local programme to help meet their priority to support local action. The aim was to support existing local groups and stimulate new activity, with grants of between £500 and £2,500. Fundraising training and support were provided to small groups to build capacity for writing grant applications. 

In the first two years, grants totalling £17,000 were awarded. Projects included a community sensory garden, domestic violence awareness for young Asian women, catering training for young lone parents, youth performances, and a programme at a secondary school where students pitched ideas to a panel to receive grants. Further funds were set up, including the Arts and Culture Seed Fund, which aimed to support high-quality, innovative, and interesting projects to excite and inspire residents. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the partnership established a £25,000 Community Resilience Fund to meet emerging and exacerbated community needs. Grants of up to £2,500 were awarded to groups for activities which could make Plaistow South a better and easier place to live. Examples included the Carers Community Mental Health Group, Four Square Church, Green Gym Orchard, Angolan Community in London, and the Greengate Café/​Cali Candy shop. 

Small grants were valuable and popular with local community groups. In running the scheme, the Big Local staff and partnership found that a lot of time was needed to identify and support groups with applications, and a simple evaluation process would be helpful for recording impact.

Working together for financial support

The Plaistow South Big Local (PSBL) partnership wanted to support residents with personal and household finances through advice and financial literacy, including in local schools and colleges. They looked to work with external agencies, for example, promoting credit union membership. The partnership commissioned Money A+E to provide advice and train residents as Money Champions (to signpost people to advice services) and Money Mentors (to run personal finance sessions). In one secondary school, 21 students were trained as mentors who then shared what they had learned on personal finance with over 200 of their peers. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, advice services moved online. Residents could access money saving financial health checks and a money guidance magazine – Quids In! – was delivered to residents, local business, schools, doctors, libraries, and community groups. The collaboration with Money A+E continued throughout the Big Local programme, while training PSBL staff and Big Local workers to deliver money advice sessions left a legacy of local financial support beyond Big Local.

Connecting through Community Cuppas 

A common thread across Plaistow South Big Local initiatives was forging a strong community and building community connections, which became more important during the Covid-19 lockdowns. The partnership started weekly, drop-in, online Community Cuppa sessions to keep in touch with each other and residents. 

From these sessions, the partnership learnt of new needs, like support to ensure digital inclusion. As lockdown restrictions were lifted, they continued hosting Community Cuppas as a monthly networking and learning tool for community groups, sometimes with guest speakers. Over time the sessions became broader community networking events, attended by 12 to 18 groups on average, designed to share information and encourage collaboration.

Helping residents access digital services

The partnership recognised the impacts of digital skills and access on health, loneliness, education, employment, and social inequality, and sought to address this gap in their community. They developed a digital inclusion project to upskill residents, so that they may feel confident to set up email accounts, book GP appointments, and shop online, and perhaps help friends and neighbours. 

The partnership commissioned Skills Enterprise to run sessions in community spaces (like schools and the digital suite at Memorial Community Church) where residents could learn together. Two residents were recruited and trained as Digital Champion volunteers to support others, and an internet router was purchased to enable community groups and residents to access data. This was used regularly by Bridges at Memorial Community Church (to support users experiencing homelessness or in vulnerable circumstances) and at Four Square Church (at their twice-weekly café, with approximately 65 users).