Barking and Dagenham Community Chest case study

The community chest model brings together key representatives from across a local community to work in partnership and use local intelligence to agree funding priorities. Community chests can combine money from the NHS, the local authority as well as other sources such as, philanthropy and local businesses to create an accessible funding pot for the voluntary and community sector.

The approach was piloted in the seven boroughs of North East London, each of which used a slightly different approach to implementation to ensure that funding priorities aligned to their local population’s needs.

Barking and Dagenham (B&D) was one of these pilot sites. Recognising the historical power imbalance between the statutory and non-statutory organisations, the Community Chest in B&D was used as a way to devolve power to the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector.

To date, there have been two rounds of community chest funding in B&D. This case study is based on the second round.

The process

A Steering Group was formed, which consisted of members from the local authority and the VCFSE sector. This group led the process delivery, including production support for a participatory budgeting day, and were provided with admin support from the council.

There was an agreement to continue with the Participatory Funding model for the community chest that had been used in year one. This was based on the Participatory Budgeting method pioneered in Brazil.

While this method tends to engage residents, B&D developed a consortium of organisations.

37 applicants were invited to pitch at the Participatory Budgeting Event. Applicants presented a 5-minute pitch to the consortium of other applicants, with all applicants taking part in voting on the quality of the project presented to determine which projects met the desired outcomes most effectively.

The existing Open Collective online portal was used for holding and distributing funds to the successful organisations.

Role of the Steering Group

The remuneration for the steering group included carrying out due diligence checks on their assigned organisations and supporting them to be compliant with the eligibility requirements of the fund prior to receiving the Community Chest grant.

They also created the Barking & Dagenham Community Chest logo and Instagram account, to support and promote the activities of successful groups and the fund itself.

Members of the Steering Group also carried the administration requirements of the disbursement process and supported grant awardees with learning how to receive their grant through the Open Collective platform. They attended post participatory budget meetings and check in meetings with the LA, and supported funded organisations through the monitoring and evaluation process.

Projects funded

The successful projects from both of the funding rounds covered a wide range of activities from drama and music projects for young people to community gardening, creative crafting, cooking activities or a focus on language skills. These activities were accessed by a wide variety of residents of all ages and cultural backgrounds.

However, each project had a number of points in common. They all:

  • Had a focus on wellbeing
  • Engaged community members in positive learning experiences
  • Had a focus on combating social isolation
  • Aimed to improve community and social cohesion
  • Aimed to increase happiness amongst participants
  • Allowed participants to improve connections to similar activities

Every funded group was a grassroots organisation with strong community connections, and ranged from small charitable organisations and community interest companies to extremely small community groups that deliver activity on a part-time basis.