In our second round (2021), we were able to make seven grants totalling £10,750 to these amazing groups:
- Sound Women SW
- CLIPS (Creative Learning and Innovation Projects)
- Bristol Sex Workers Collective
- SLEEC (Survivors Leading Essential Education and Change)
- Inclusive Wellness
- Bridge of Love
- Newtown Network
- Reparations Bristol
- Creative Tuition Collective
- East and South East Asian Solidarity Bristol
- Avon Indian Community Association
Fostering diversity in the radio and audio industries, and giving women and girls from BAME and marginalised groups a stronger artistic voice.
Sound Women is a project that aims to give women and girls from BAME and marginalized groups a stronger artistic voice and enable cultural sharing by running training workshops and networking events.In the last 3 years they have taught over 1,000 participants in a variety of radio and podcasting skills.
The project addresses the lack of cultural representation of women and girls from BAME communities, creating a platform to share their own content online globally, and more specifically within their own communities. It teaches new skills in recording, storytelling and poetry, addressing issues of under-representation. Workshops, which take place in existing group venues, help to build community bonds; help reduce isolation and help dispel negative stereotypes and give a voice to the underrepresented.
The sessions are accessible to target groups – young and older women from BAME communities – which are located in the areas classified as most deprived as published in 2015 by Bristol City Council, their research listing 42 data areas (LSOAs) in the most deprived 10% in England for Multiple Deprivation. By holding workshops in these areas, targeted at local BAME groups, we are creating opportunities to learn new skills, creating confidence through teaching new creative practices.
CLIPS (Creative Learning and Innovation Projects)
£1,000
CLIPS was set up by a group of 5 Black adults, who have all spent time in the care system in January 2016 out of a growing sense of frustration regarding provision of effective creative and educational opportunities for children and young people who are/have been in care.
Outcomes for care-experienced young people have barely improved, with scandalous levels of low attainment at GCSE, A level and degree level. CLIPS aims to find innovative ways of making a marked difference to the lives and outlook of young people in care.
CLIPS has run a range of creative arts projects in the South West including creative writing workshops, dances and theatre classes and photography projects, as well as residential trips and personal development programmes for children in care and care leavers to improve their quality of life and provide new opportunities.
A collective created and run by sex workers that advocates for the rights and safety of sex workers in Bristol.
Bristol Sex Workers Collective is a collective created and run by sex workers for sex workers. It advocates for the rights and safety of sex workers in Bristol and the surrounding areas. BristolSWC is also part of the global sex worker led movement which is calling for the decriminalisation of sex work.
The group originally started with 7 friends who would meet every other week, attend events, take part in research panels and perform advocacy duties for the community. Since then BristolSWC developed into a community space which provides peer-led support to other sex workers, mental health support and signposting, training to services to improve accessibility for sex workers and advocates for the rights of sex workers in local government policy decisions.
All campaigns run by the group are sex worker led and have included opposing the closure of the city’s SEVs and educating around the issues faced by full service sex workers, such as police and client violence.
SLEEC is a survivor-run organisation that challenges systems, builds radical healing spaces, dismantles rape culture and supports survivors. It is an educational platform, a mutual support space, a radical healing space, a basic accessible fund for survivors of rape and sexual violence who don’t have money, and a movement.
It is run by The Disobedient Survivors (AKA Meg and Bryony) from Bristol, who set it up in December 2019 as an answer to the many problems they saw within existing survivor support spaces. RRP supports survivors through their mutual support collective, which links survivors to other survivors to allow them to co-support each other in a way that is completely led and controlled by them, and the Resilience Fund, which allows survivors to take out mini grants to get self-care treats (something we should all be able to afford).
SLEEC also supports education and unlearning through writing articles, photography, talks, direct intervention, training and consultancy, workshops and courses. Through this they address things that are avoided in mainstream support services and the media, like understanding the complexities of our privileges and oppressions, exploration of sexual pleasure, erotica and sexuality after trauma, classism within well-being, the power of raw humour and playfulness, toxic mental health stigma and learning how to liberate ourselves from sexist systems.
A social enterprise that provides access to wellness services to those who are often excluded.
Inclusive Wellness is a social enterprise that aims to create a new intersectional framework for health and wellness outside of the more mainstream understanding of the terms. Inclusive Wellness is run by Laura (background in massage therapy and admin in the complementary health and VCSE sectors), Lynne (yoga teacher) and Lauren (academic and support worker in the VAWG sector).
The trio set up Inclusive Wellness out of an awareness of the positive benefits wellness practices have had on their lives, and the recognition of the privilege they have had in being able to afford access, and they want to extend that access to all as a right.
The social enterprise aims to create profits through education and training courses and community engagement, which will then be reinvested into providing or funding access to complementary health and wellness services for people who experience barriers to accessing them or are under-represented in their participation. Inclusive Wellness hopes to expand into creating employment, accessible training and work experience in the wellness sector for people who otherwise struggle to break into the industry.
Bridge of Love
£850
A community project to make the footbridge between Easton and St Werburghs a place of remembrance for those who lost their lives by suicide there.
Bridge of Love was set up by Maya-Blue Gamble to bring colour and light to the footbridge that connects St Werburghs and Easton after her partner lost her life to suicide there. Along with a mixed group of men and women aged 24-26, Maya-Blue set up the project with the aim of creating a powerful new landmark of hope in the city and raise awareness of mail suicide.
Suicide is still the biggest cause of of men under 45. In 2020 there were 4,912 suicides in the UK, with male suicide rates three times higher than those of women. Tackling self-harm and suicide is part of Bristol’s heath and wellbeing plan and the Bridge of Love project like could help spark everyday conversations for our communities.
As part of the project, Bridge of Love aims to create a visually stunning bridge, full of messages of love and hope that brings together the communities it connects, creates a place of remembrance for those that have lost their lives there, and encourage the community to name the bridge to give it a bright and hopeful identity.
Newtown Network
£1,000
A community group aiming to reverse years of neglect and ensure that residents feel heard, connected and empowered
Newtown Network is a volunteer-led Community Group based in Newtown (Lawrence Hill) launched Summer 2021.
Led by organiser Deborah Benjamin, they deliver community projects and services around Newtown and the wider community, an area of over 200 households cut off geographically by two large roads St. Phillips Causeway and Clarence Road, and the Kingsland Industrial estate.
Newtown residents often feel like they are not being heard by the council and the rest of Bristol and are excluded from many arts and council grants. Despite these feelings, there is still a strong feeling of community and belonging in Newtown, many of the families have lived here for several generations – there is a large desire to reconnect the communities found in Newtown, and let the rest of Bristol know that they exist.
Newtown Network has come together to try and address the issues caused by deprivation and neglect (as highlighted in the Lawrence Hill Wards Stats 2021). And aims to act as a catalyst, and inspiration in the area that collectively we can make change.
Newtown Network activities include social events designed to integrate the various communities living in Newtown, tackle loneliness and isolation, and support mental health and wellbeing. The Network has also been devised to engage local youth, and help tackle anti-social behaviours and crime which is prevalent in the area.
Support and education for young people aged 11-16 from African Caribbean backgrounds who are underprivileged and at risk of not achieving full education and employment.
Reparations Bristol is a community interest company (CIC) that provides support and education to underprivileged young people aged 11 to 16 years from an African-Caribbean background who are at risk of not achieving full education and employment.
It gives these young people access to programmes that offer tuition and mentorship to help them on their journey. It builds relationships with the African-Caribbean community to support them to be involved in the programme. It also provides stories of lived experiences so that young people can avoid the path which can lead to crime.
Racial discrimination is a key contributory factor having a negative effect on the lives of the young people that Reparations Bristol seeks to support.
Racism itself can undermine mental health characteristics, such as resilience and hope, which in turn may lead to social unrest. Addressing it is vital to ensuring the health equity of all children, adolescents, young adults and their future families. Reparations Bristol’s vision is to equip African-Caribbean children with the life skills required for a brighter future for all. It fights for unity, love, justice, equity, opportunity and all those necessary things to ensure the generations coming up can thrive.
A free tuition service for young people from low income backgrounds.
Creative Tuition Collective (CTC) is a non-profit community organisation aiming to provide young people from low-income backgrounds a free tuition service in STEM topics with an expansive pedagogical approach, high-quality tutoring and mental health support groups.
CTC firmly believes that tutoring can change lives – one to one tuition, according to the Education Endowment Foundation can result in up to five months’ progress to a child’s learning on average.
The CTC project aims to build an inclusive, well-supported educational space that can build the academic capabilities of young people in STEM topics.
Digital support is provided in the form of second-hand laptops and internet dongles to participants that have been digitally excluded from education and online resources. These provisions not only help the young people in the community but also their families by providing internet access and additional equipment that could relieve stress on the current devices being used.
This project also seeks to support teachers in helping students catch up and improve their understanding within their STEM topic through providing the extra tuition for free and engages with a variety of tutors and mentors to make use of a range of teaching techniques.
A grassroots solidarity group for the East and South East Asian diasporic community in Bristol.
East & South East Asian Solidarity (ESEAS) Bristol aims to bring together the East and South East Asian (ESEA) communities in Bristol and to make the voice of these communities heard in and around the city.
ESEA communities face significant discrimination. In the Avon and Somerset region, there has been a 158.82% increase in reported hate crimes against people of ‘Chinese, Japanese or South East Asian’ identity in 2020 compared to 2019, while representation is still desperately lacking in the most powerful positions in the UK.
To bring the ESEA community together, ESEAS Bristol aims to co-create friendly spaces for ESEA people to come together both in person and online. The group runs events such as potluck dinners and an inter-community campfire gathering, fostering solidarity between different groups in Bristol, and provides different platforms for groups to connect and communicate with each other in their own time to offer support, share resources and enable them to lead on organising activities for the group.
An umbrella organisation for Indian communities in the Bristol area.
The Avon Indian Community Association (AICA) is an umbrella organisation for Indian communities living in the Bristol area. It was established in 2007 and since inception has grown to just over 150 members, the majority of whom are female and elderly (around 70%). The AICA is run entirely by volunteers.
The vision and mission of the AICA is to provide a platform for promoting social cohesiveness within the current and new generations of people of Indian origin and the wider community. The AICA also strives to create better understanding and awareness of Indian culture, heritage and values to encourage and promote cross and inter-cultural communication. Taken together, the AICA intends to further develop a programme of services to provide support, advice, skills, representation, interpretation and translation initiatives through the broader aim of enriching the quality of life, encouraging community cohesion and cross-cultural understanding.
Key services include: monthly meetings for Indian families, as well as a fortnightly 50+ club where senior citizens come together to socialise, share ideas, network, raise problems, and meet experts on various topics of interest from health and wellbeing to welfare issues.
Over the last year in response to the pandemic and lockdowns, the AICA volunteers have also been busy collecting prescriptions and delivering food parcels, shopping, and providing cooked meals to an average of 40 vulnerable elderly, isolated Indian people a day.
Bristol Redistro 