Community news
Royal Docks Team announce applications open for second round of ‘Create Your Docks’ Community Fund
Today, the Royal Docks Team announced an open call for applications - to their 'Create Your Docks' fund. This fund supports community-led groups and not-for-profit organisations to take an active role in the area's regeneration.
The ‘Create Your Docks’ fund welcomes people from all different backgrounds and walks of life, particularly under-represented groups, to plan, design and deliver activities and events that celebrate and activate public spaces in and around the Royal Docks. We welcome ideas that activate and bring spaces back to life, and help to create welcoming, inclusive, and vibrant sense of place as well as enable different communities to come together.
Round one of Create Your Docks, which launched in 2021, successfully awarded grants to twelve projects ranging from community greening, digital storytelling activities, mentoring skills and training opportunities and more.
Create Your Docks round two will offer grants of up to £15,000 to local community groups and organisations with ideas that fall into the following three key categories:
- Place: Activating areas around the Royal Docks (such as Royal Victoria Gardens, Dockside Lawns and Thames Barrier Park). We welcome projects which are inspired by the people and places of the Royal Docks, including its incredible diversity, heritage and landscape
- Connectivity: Building ‘social capital’ e.g., creating new relationships and bonds between different communities in the area, with a view to increasing community cohesion and celebrating the richness and diversity of the Royal Docks communities and wider area.
- Identity: Celebrating the Royal Docks rich heritage and history by showcasing a variety of stories and experiences from people of all backgrounds. We want to acknowledge a past, present, and future Royal Docks.
I look forward to seeing a new selection of innovative and fantastic projects which will create opportunities for different communities to come together
Mayor of Newham and Co-chair of the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone Board, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE
The Mayor of Newham and Co-chair of the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone Board, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, said: "I am delighted to hear that applications are open again to the Create Your Docks community fund. This fund has supported a multitude of projects over the last year, enabling our diverse Royal Docks and Newham communities to channel their creativity and passions into reality. I look forward to seeing a new selection of innovative and fantastic projects which will create opportunities for different communities to come together, celebrating the area's rich cultural diversity and making an inclusive and active sense of place.”
Farah Mahammoud, You Press Founder/Director said: "The Create your Docks fund empowered us to form very promising partnerships and collaborative opportunities in Newham and offered an opportunity for You Press to officially move back to Newham - where our journey began as a social enterprise. All these amazing outcomes would not have been possible without the Royal Docks support."
In 2018, the Mayor of London, the Mayor of Newham and the London Local Economic Action Partnership (LEAP) approved an ambitious Delivery Plan Delivery. The Royal Docks Enterprise Zone Programme priorities include:
Place: Creating a major mixed-use destination – improving and activating public spaces and use of the water for all.
Connectivity: Boosting accessibility and active travel – improving local mobility and connections in accessible, inclusive, and sustainable ways.
Economy: Driving the capital's productivity and growth – creating economic opportunities for local people through skills, employment, and supporting entrepreneurs.
Culture: Powering London's creative engine – building a vibrant local scene for community arts, heritage, culture, and creativity.
Identity: Locally driven and globally positioned – celebrating and showcasing the Royal Docks' diverse communities through their stories.
The 'Create Your Docks' fund will play a leading role in creating a place that sets new standards for sustainable and responsible growth, and which supports London to be a more open and inclusive global city.
To find out more about Create Your Docks, and how to apply, please visit https://www.royaldocks.london/community-fund
Applicants have until 5pm on Monday 23 May 2022 to apply.
Successful fund applicants will be awarded in June 2022. Awarded projects must take place between July 2022 – October 2022.
