As a Foundation, it is our privilege to support Lambeth residents studying at further/higher education and schools and organisations making a massive impact in the local community.  It is very important that our grants are provided effectively, efficiently and supportively.  To help with this, we carry out a Listening Exercise every three years to get systematic feedback from grantees on what is working well but more importantly where we can improve our systems and our service.
 
We commissioned IVAR to carry out an independent survey of our grantees. 161 responded to their survey and two focus groups were carried out.  Overall the response from grantees was very positive about the Walcot Foundation. However, there were also suggestions for improvement which are being taken on board and systems will be updated by end of June to take these suggestions into account.  Furthermore, grantees raised wider strategic issues and these will be fed into our strategy review which is taking place later this year.
 
For more information and the full report, please see here.

We're delighted to announce that the next Director and Clerk to the Governors will be Marcia Asare. Marcia is joining the Foundation from City & Guilds Group where her role has included setting up their Skills Development Fund, and most recently developing their Environmental, Social and Governance Strategy. She takes up her post after Easter. About the prospect of joining Walcot, Marcia said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead Walcot, and support Lambeth residents to continue to navigate their way through today’s pressures and constraints, in an increasingly polarized society, where barriers are continuously changing.”

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Our Annual Review 2020/2021 has been published. View it online here. If you'd like a printed copy,  just let us know.

HEADLINES: WHAT WE DID IN 2020/21

• We distributed £2,208,510 via 401 grants. 277 directly to individuals (£324,198) and 124 to organizations, projects and schools to fund work with our target group (£1,884,312).
  
• In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we set up the Lambeth Community Response Fund (LCRF). It had two elements: re-targeting our grants programmes and attracting and distributing an additional £330,000 from other sources. Between late April and early September 2020 we made 62 grants totalling £872,487 (46 via LCRF and 16 to schools).
  
• We administered a community-led £300K grant programme piloting new approaches to improving the employment prospects of black citizens in Lambeth with long-term health conditions. This was a partnership venture with Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation and Black Thrive.
• The Walcot Futures programme ran for a second year, allowing three of our grantees to shadow the work of the Foundation and gain experience of charity governance, operations, and management.  
• We undertook major refurbishment of four properties (the Foundation owns 70+ properties, used to generate income for our work). We continued with the construction of six new houses. These, too, will generate income for our charitable activity in Lambeth.
• We improved our website, making it easier to navigate and more accessible.
• We planned BounceBack: our second-phase response to the pandemic. It is a two-year programme (2021-2023) funded by £2 million from our reserves. Beneficiaries will be Lambeth-resident low-income citizens under 30 who have (a) been displaced from their jobs because of Covid-19 and (b) those who are coming new to the jobs market and have found their opportunities narrowed by the pandemic’s impact on the wider labour market. More here.

The Living Wage Foundation has announced the revised hourly rates needed to allow people to get by, and to thrive.

Find out about the Living Wage campaign -

The average household in poverty pays almost £500 a year extra for essential services such as credit, energy, and insurance. The cause is 'the poverty premium' which refers to the extra costs incurred by low-income households when purchasing the same or similar essential goods and services as households on higher incomes.

The Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 removed the requirement in the Child Poverty Act 2010 to publish a UK wide child poverty strategy. This left Government without a clear focus on tackling child poverty, with departments working in silos and a lack of clear leadership.

On 22 September 2021 the Work and Pensions Committee published Children in poverty: measurement and targets. Amongst its recommendations is that the Government must now commit to implementing a cross-departmental strategy for reducing child poverty, setting clear and measurable objectives which draw on the latest evidence.
Access the summary and the report itself here.
The Walcot Foundation’s submission is here.

16 projects have been awarded £1,525,232 over two years to help low-income Lambeth residents under 30 find paid work.  These projects will begin project delivery in October 2021.  They will work as a cross-referring partnership and link in with Lambeth's Youth Hubs.  BounceBack participants will also have access to £500 Job Transition Grants to help with some of the initial costs associated with starting and sustaining a new job.

Boris Johnson has been formally warned by the UK statistics regulator about his claim that child poverty has fallen over the past decade, accoring to HuffPost UK.

...since covid-19 changed our lives from March 2020 we have maintained our services and operations. In particular we have continued to receive and assess applications and (between April 2020 and the end of March 2021) made grants amounting to £2.21 million. All in Lambeth. All to help low-income residents gain the opportunities and skills likely to help them across their working lives.

Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd are a business based in West Norwood and keen to support community projects that are making a difference locally.  Through connection with Walcot Foundation, they have generously agreed to provide £60K over three years to Rathbone's Inspiring Learning project based at the Old Library in West Norwood.  

This project provides supported learning/tutoring sessions, termly 1:1 support/progress sessions, arts and sports activities and a six-week Stronger Minds resilience programme.  This project is even more vital over the coming years due to Covid-19's impact on young people's education and mental health.

This partnership between Winn & Coales and Rathbone is a fantastic example of local business providing long-term committed support to make a sustained impact in the community.