Agenda item

To receive the report of Shaun Rogan, Head of Corporate Strategy.

A presentation will be provided by Simon Gardner, Regeneration Director and Jo Ikhelef, Chief Executive Officer, Enfield Voluntary Action.

RECEIVED a presentation from Jo Ikhelef, Chief Executive Officer, Enfield Voluntary Action and Simon Gardner, Regeneration Director

NOTED

1.    The Chair, Cllr Ergil introduced the report and said that he was grateful to officers for bringing this item forward as many of the Equalities Board members had raised this issue very early on. He went on to say that Pastor Nick Chanda who represents the Enfield Faith Forum on the Equalities Board had been eager to receive this presentation, therefore in view of his absence at tonight’s meeting it was agreed that a copy of the presentation be forwarded to Pastor Chanda for information. Action: Stacey Gilmour

2.    The report provides an overview on grant making by the local authority to Enfield’s voluntary and community sector with reference to ‘live’ grant streams that offer widest accessibility to all community partners and support offered to community groups to access internal and external funding opportunities. These currently are the Enfield Neighbourhood Fund and the Edmonton Community Chest Fund.

3.    Jo Ikhelef, Chief Executive Officer, Enfield Voluntary Action (EVA) introduced her presentation which provided an overview on what EVA is and how it supports BME groups in Enfield Council’s grants programmes.

4.    EVA recognises the barriers for BME groups to navigate mainstream services and as a result, provide accessible services built on and improved over 32 years, which has led to this high representation of BME groups being supported through EVA’s services.

5.    EVA works to empower BME groups to provide much needed support to communities that are culturally specific and dynamic in their reach.

6.    Further information was provided on EVA members, raising funds, participatory grant programmes and the guidance that is offered to BME groups throughout the grant programme process.

7.    In response to a question from Cllr Pratt, Officers explained how informal groups across the borough who were not registered as charities could still apply for funding with support from EVA.

8.    Cllr Gyosheva asked if there was any control regarding repeat grant applications. Officers explained that each grant programme will have different rules and criteria and the monitoring of each fund has its own process.

9.    In response to Cllr Cetinkaya’s question regarding the number of community groups in the borough it was advised that this has remained relatively stable. There had been quite a few closures during the pandemic, however lots of new community groups had since opened, for example food banks.

10. Following a question from the Chair regarding Funding Fares, Jo advised that one had taken place this month with further events planned for May and September. Jo encouraged members of the board to sign up to the EVA newsletter for all event information.

11. Simon Gardner, Regeneration Director provided further information on the Enfield Neighbourhood Fund, which is a funding programme made available by the London Borough of Enfield. The funding comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy and LBE have allocated a pot of funding to a grants programme to support the development of an area through provision, improvement, replacement, operation or maintenance of infrastructure or anything else that is concerned with addressing the demands that development places on an area. Further information on the Enfield Neighbourhood Fund can be found at Community development | Enfield Council.

12. A presentation was also provided on the Meridian Water Community Chest grant programme. This grant, which accompanies the development which is being designed to ensure local people are the primary beneficiaries of the development, was launched in November 2021 until January 2022, with a funding pot of £950k available to the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) in small and large grants. The areas targeted were Upper Edmonton, Edmonton Green and Lower Edmonton.

13. This grant programme has already awarded more than £317k in funding to 19 projects delivering to the communities in Edmonton, which address social cohesion; local issues around deprivation and poverty; and activities which build a bridge to enable access to new opportunities. Round two is expected in late 2023. Further information can be found at www.meridianwater.co.uk/community-chest

The Chair thanked Officers for their interesting and informative updates.