The Giving Lab Case Studies

CASE STUDIES FROM THE GIVING LAB

FUNDED PROJECTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON PEOPLE’s lives

Through The Giving Lab, people in the West-Central Southwark community have been able to bring their ideas to life on how to improve health in their communities. Together with the community, we identified four key areas that have the biggest impact on people’s health - specifically on multiple long-term health conditions: Money, Housing, Employment, and Preventative Health. These themes became the focus for all projects that sit within The Giving Lab.

While identifying them as separate focus areas, it is important to recognise how interconnected these themes are - stressing once again the importance of centring lived experience when looking for appropriate, just, and effective solutions to the issues people face. See how the community has approached that through their work in the case studies below.

The Giving Lab - case studies

Sweet Success: Cake Decoration for Empowerment

Sweet Success: Cake Decoration for Empowerment aims to empower women by providing comprehensive cake decoration skills while promoting mental health and offering flexible employment opportunities in the cake decoration field, all within a 12-week course.

Mould Hurts

Mould Hurts is a project around awareness raising on mould and the impact it has on residents and health. Bringing residents together, the project offers support on how to manage mould issues and the health effects it can have on communities.

Walworth Wellness

Walworth Wellness is a collective set up by John, Betty and Elaine, who each focussed on a social activity to implement and deliver to local people in the area of Walworth. The activities ranged from gardening, theatre and other creative sessions.

Adult IT Skills Training

Adult IT Skills Training delivered a 12-week IT training course to adults, seniors, asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees. Gaining and enhancing IT skills allows people to access council services that are only accessible online, increase their well-being and improve their job opportunities.

Local Fitness Club

Phillip had been running the Local Fitness Club for a number of years, but was looking to expand his reach. As a community champion, who has been voluntarily running his club, the TGL funding enabled him to continue running his sessions against a backdrop of increased costs.

Preventative Health

Goschen Garden Party

Preventative Health

Goschen Garden & Skate Party is a community health and wellbeing initiative from Amie and Melissa, delivering an inclusive event to promote health and wellbeing for the residents of the Goschen Estate to help tackle obesity in their communities.

Preventative Health

Housing

Hear Our Story

Housing

Hear Our Story is a project developed by residents of the Rockingham Estate, providing art workshops in Southwark to empower and enable local people to share their stories and express their views and feelings about issues important in their lives.

Housing

Preventative Health

Nurtured

Preventative Health

Founded by medical student Victoria Balogun, Nurtured focuses on empowering Black community members with health confidence, promoting well-being, and addressing systemic disparities by providing accessible and actionable resources to enhance well-being and foster personal growth.

Preventative Health

Employment

Big Fish Big Pond

Employment

Exploring the relationship between unmeaningful work and mental health amongst residents in Walworth through a documentary, Big Fish Big Pond aims to personify the issues that Southwark residents experience when it comes to BAME work place opportunities.

Employment

The Local Empowerment Network and Life of a Tree

Employment

The Local Empowerment Network (LEN) is a group of local businesses in Walworth working to tackle youth unemployment. Life of a Tree empowers young people aged 18 to 25 by providing them with essential skills, knowledge, and opportunities to succeed in employment and entrepreneurship.

Employment