Walcot BounceBack is a £2 million programme which will run for two years from April 2021. This is an additional Walcot Foundation programme, on top of our usual annual grants programmes.

BounceBack’s purpose is to help low-income Lambeth residents under the age of 30 find paid work. It is our major, Phase Two response to the impact of the pandemic. 

It is focused on those who (a) have been displaced from employment because of the pandemic and (b) those who are coming new to the jobs market and have found their opportunities narrowed by the pandemic’s effect on the wider labour market. 

We are now inviting proposals from organisations to deliver the programme. We expect to award up to 15 grants each worth £100,000 over the two years.  The closing date for applications is 12 April 2021. Full details here.  

IRMO has produced a new report highlighting the impact of Covid-19 on the local Lambeth Latin American community. It highlights the intersecting crises of rising unemployment, abusive employment practices, housing insecurity and increasing food poverty facing the Latin American community.  1 in 7 Latin Americans are not registered with a GP. This raises important concerns about the exclusion from future health programmes such as the roll out of the COVID vaccine.

Key findings:

• Half are out of work as a result of the pandemic
• 1 in 7 are not registered with a GP
• Half are experiencing financial hardship
• 6 out of 10 are struggling to pay rent
• A third are facing food poverty
• 27% are not entitled to benefits
• 4 out of 10 have no internet at home, and 15% have no devices

"The prefixes ‘food’, ‘child’ or ‘fuel’ make life for 14 million poor Britons seem easily fixable. In truth, radical action is needed."
Aditya Chakrabortty, Guardian columnist.
See article here

Black Thrive, with funding from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, is running a community-led £300K grant programme over two years to improve employment outcomes for Black people with long-term health conditions (LTCs) in Lambeth.  The Walcot Foundation is providing free grant-making administrative support and advice to Black Thrive during this two year programme

In its first funding round, Black Thrive's Employment Project Community Working Group allocated a grand total of £122k across 8 new projects, that will test new approaches to providing employment support for Black people with long-term conditions. 

As a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Foundation's Governors have made the decision that the following five priorities will apply for organisation/school grants in 2021/22 :
​
Top Priorities

1. Directly support for the academic achievement of pupils, particularly projects that will help close the attainment gap between pupil premium pupils and their peers. 
2. Support young people (under 30) into employment – priority will go to projects that are able to offer routes into secure employment at London Living Wage level and/or working with young people who are furthest from the labour market.  
3. Maximising access to free, independent advice from accredited sources, particularly in the fields of debt, housing and employment. ​

Subsidiary Priorities
      4. To address student (re-)engagement with school, particularly in transition years and students at risk of exclusion.
      5. Early intervention projects that address the mental health needs of our target pupil groups where it is clear they               cannot be funded by school or state.

​More information below the line here.

In the programme launched today, the London Community Response is taking applications for grants of up to £10,000 to help groups support Londoners affected by Covid-19 over the next six months. Applications will be assessed on a first-come-first-served basis, with a final deadline of 5pm on Thursday 3 December 2020.

More information can be found on the London Community Response website.

We are grateful to Vauxhall MP Florence Eshalomi for responding to our concern about Lambeth Advice Centres by asking the Secretary of State for Justice about the steps he proposes (See Hansard, here). Following the question in the Commons she wrote to him with further questions: "In the Chamber, I highlighted that access to justice is under threat. In my constituency of Vauxhall, we have just lost one of our most established independent legal advice centres. As you will know from your own casework, access to free independent legal advice is essential for our citizens, especially the most disadvantaged. And in some instances, it can be life changing."