Better Bankside awards £7,500 in grants for local charities and community groups

Better Bankside has awarded grants to twelve local charities and community groups as part of this year’s Community Grants programme.  The funded projects will deliver meaningful support that makes an impact on the lives of people living in Bankside and across Southwark.

Grants worth just over £7,500 have been awarded to charities and community groups that support neurodivergent young people and their families, older people, and those with learning disabilities, as well as community gardening, redistributing surplus food, supporting new mums, and enabling community events for residents.

These are the organisations that have received funding from the 2025-26 grants programme:

• Bankside Open Spaces Trust to invest in new wheelbarrows and trolleys for their volunteer gardening activities
• Bede House to fund new adaptive equipment for weekly art activities for people with learning disabilities
• Bounce Legacy to cover the costs of a screening at the Everyman Borough Yards of films created by marginalised young people from Southwark
• CareTrade to buy a projector that they will use for training sessions and events for autistic people, their family, partners and employers
• Draper Together so that they can buy six laptops for their Kids Club, giving young people access to devices for digital learning and homework
• Feed Us Up will deliver food and wellbeing parcels to isolated older people across the neighbourhood
• Lant and Bittern Street Tenants & Residents Association to invest in two gazebos so they can run accessible outdoor community activities on their estate
• London LGBTQ+ Community Centre, so they can continue running a monthly group for older people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community
• Plan Zheroes to fund new equipment used by volunteers when collecting surplus food from Borough Market traders, on every day that the market is open
• RJ4ALL to cover six months of running costs, including non-perishable food and electricity, for the Rotherhithe Community Fridge
• The Bridge so that they can offer dance and movement classes to local new mums, as part of their Friday Mums’ Club programme
• The Neurodiversity Hub will invest in cooking and other equipment that will help young people build friendships and skills

Better Bankside’s Community Grant programme is funded by a proportion of the BID levy paid by Better Bankside’s members.  The Responsible Business and Inclusion Theme Group oversees the grants programme, with all grant requests reviewed by members of the theme group, representing local businesses.

For more information about the Community Grants, or joining the Responsible Business and Inclusion Theme Group, please get in touch with Rachel Nicholson, Responsible Business & Inclusion Manager.