London,
20
March
2018
|
15:00
Europe/London

Addressing rough sleeping and youth offending at heart of £1.6m community impact pledge

Camden Council is investing up to £1.6m through its partner voluntary organisations over the next two years to help address some of the most complex and concerning social issues facing Camden residents.

Camden’s Community Impacts Scheme will focus on rough sleeping, supporting emotional health and wellbeing, youth offending and supporting people with social care needs in the community. Making progress in these areas will directly contribute to the new community vision ‘Camden 2025’, which contains the ambitions that by 2025 everyone should have a place to call home, everyone should feel part of a safe, strong and open community and everyone in Camden is able to live a healthy, active and happy life.

Camden Council has been working with a wide range of partners to develop ideas for the scheme, including the Community Centres Consortium (C4), Age UK Camden, the Roundhouse and New Horizon Youth Centre. The Council sees using the expertise of its partners in the borough as a key way to achieving the ambitions of its Camden 2025 vision.

Councillor Jonathan Simpson, Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Promoting Culture and Communities at Camden Council, said: “Our voluntary and community partners work day in day out with some of our most vulnerable residents. They understand the barriers which stop our rough sleepers getting a proper roof over their heads and see the common traps which our young people can fall into once they begin offending. So what we need to do is harness the data and knowledge our partners have and back them through funding and support to deliver one-off evidence-based pilots and projects to ensure no-one in Camden gets left behind.”

Marcus Davey, CEO and artistic director of the Roundhouse said: “We are thrilled to see Camden Council working in partnership to tackle some of the issues facing the most vulnerable residents in the borough. At the Roundhouse, our creative programme for 11-25 year-olds delivers a significant impact on the lives and communities of the thousands of young people we work with, and we’re looking forward to working with our local partners and Camden Council to improve the prospects, safety and happiness of the local residents.”Age

UK Camden’s Gary Jones said: “Camden Council is to be commended for backing new ideas and joining up services to support older and disabled people and those with mental health issues, tackle rough sleeping, and give youth offenders a new start. The ideas have come from local people and voluntary organisations working with the Council.”

Camden Community Impacts’ investment will include:

  • Youth offending: £200,000 to support community responses to serious youth violence and gang crime in Camden and £200,000 for a pilot demonstrating the effective role the voluntary sector can take in reducing youth reoffending.
  • Emotional health and wellbeing: £200,000 towards a partnership to encourage residents to build their personal resilience and independence, linking them to opportunities and activities in their community.
  • Rough sleeping: Up to £70,000 will go towards a voluntary sector led engagement project to understand the experiences of people rough sleeping and give them a voice so that they can be better supported off the streets
  • Supporting adult social care clients in the community: Up to £100,000 will go towards a fund that the voluntary sector can offer to entrepreneurial ideas that break down the barriers older and disabled people face in accessing community facilities.

The identity of organisations leading these projects and their launch is expected in May 2018.

There are lots of different ways groups can be part of the scheme’s development. Tweet us @camdentalking using #camdencommunityimpacts or send us a message through the Love Camden and LBCamden Facebook pages.