Projects
How do we make a difference?
“…this project is an example of Localism at its most successful enabling [Stockwell Partnership] to identify and reach out to people who would be traditionally very hard to engage.”
Portuguese Advice & Capacity Building Project Evaluation, Ian Beever Consultancy & Training
Stockwell Partnership is a charity run by local people for local people. We improve the quality of life in the local area by developing projects, building partnerships, and supporting residents to take action on the issues they care about. We work with residents to create a neighbourhood where people feel happy and safe, and where they have a sense of pride and ownership.
Highlights from our 2024-25 work programme
Thriving Stockwell
Our Thriving Stockwell programme, co-founded with the Stockwellbeing Primary Care Network, improves health and wellbeing through better connecting services to people, and supporting residents to develop healthy lifestyles. It has been running for three years, and our partners include Art4Space, Stockwell Park Community Trust, Morley College, Hyde and Lambeth Together; the wider network includes over 40 groups and organisations in Stockwell.
Last year, with funding from Lambeth’s Connecting Communities Fund and Lambeth Together, we ran 14 peer support groups in our Community Living Rooms, organised 18 events including Eid, Christmas, Diwali, Black History and LGBT Month activities, and promoted Thriving Stockwell and other community activities on social media. 800 people took part in the programme at our weekly Community Living Room activities and community events. We also worked with South Lambeth and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s Health Partners to deliver the community connector element of the Pain: Equality of Care and Support in the Community (PEACS) project with a peer support group of black residents with chronic pain. This project was highly commended at the HSJ Awards in December.
The peer support groups we established in the Community Living Rooms reported significant improvements to wellbeing, e.g. those reporting poor mental health dropped from 49% to 27% over the 12-week programme, and those strongly agreeing they are content with friendships and relationships increased from 13% to 38%. Thriving Stockwell is increasingly seen as a flagship project for engaging a neighbourhood in improving health inequalities.
Support to Portuguese and Spanish speakers
Our Stockwell Portuguese Community project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, continued to see increased demand because of the cost-of-living crisis. We supported 1025 beneficiaries, including 18 older people in our Hug Group and 10 people with increased employability skills.
Walcot Foundation awarded us a grant to strengthen Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking families with financial resilience, parenting skills, and access to services. We recruited a new member of staff in October, and have so far supported 118 families and carers, including running workshops on welfare benefits and resilience.
Commissioned by Lambeth council Early Years department, we are also running a Start for Life programme in Children’s centres and other settings to support Portuguese and Spanish speakers with 0-1 year-old children with positive parenting, financial resilience, accessing services and employability. This year, 226 parents were helped through the programme.
Support with Employability
In August, Lambeth Employment and Skills Team commissioned us to deliver an employment support project to help disadvantaged parents into work. We have to date supported 22 migrant parents with employability skills.
Lambeth Networks
As part of our work with the Lambeth Forum Network we delivered the Stockwell Forum, as well as related Thriving Stockwell work. We continued our work with Lambeth council and the Lambeth Community Hubs network to develop our connectivity and services as part of the Community Hubs programme. The hubs reviewed and added to a range of policy templates for the sector, as well as providing mentoring support to local community organisations. We also worked with High Trees CDT, IRMO, Black Thrive and other partners to develop and launch the new Lambeth Community Research Network. In February 2025 we will be taking part in the new Ecology Group for Health and Wellbeing in Lambeth, organised by the Neighbourhood Wellbeing Delivery Alliance.