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Young K&C Member Spotlight June 2021: The Campden Charities

Posted on: 02/06/2021 in: News ,

Young K&C Member Spotlight June 2021: The Campden Charities

This month’s Member Spotlight is The Campden Charities, who help Kensington residents in financial need reach for a better future. They make grants to assist with the costs of education, training, volunteering and sustaining employment (e.g. travel, clothing, childcare), as well as essential household goods and services that low-income individuals and families would find difficult to afford as they are endeavouring to improve their financial circumstances.

Watch the video (or read the text transcript) below to find out more about their organisation and what they do.

TEXT TRANSCRIPT:

Who are The Campden Charities and what do you do?

The Campden Charities has been helping individuals in financial need in the former Parish of Kensington for almost 400 years. Essentially, this means people who live south of the Harrow Road, and north of the Fulham Road.

We help people of all ages from Kensington households who are in receipt of benefits or are in low paid work, to reach for a better future. We fund education and training that has a strong likelihood of leading to future work. For young people from financially disadvantaged households, we fund things like school journeys, after school activities, school uniforms and meals for those not in receipt of free school meals.

We have the Young People's Grants Programme for 16 to 24 year olds in training or education, which is a monthly grant of roughly £150 throughout the academic year. This helps with costs like laptops, school supplies, travel and clothing.

We also have the Campden Apprenticeship Programme, which tops up the apprenticeship wage right up to the London Living Wage.

And then we have the Camden Scholarship Programme, which is designed for our University students, both in London and studying outside of London. We help out with an annual grant, plus we can help out with accommodation costs for those outside of London.

How can someone apply for a grant or make a referral?

Our main criteria are as follows: those living in Kensington continuously for two years or more, British nationals or those with indefinite leave to remain, those living in rented accommodation, willingness to have a home visit (in person or virtual) and to share a few financial documents with us.

Finally, maximising benefits. For example, if you're able to apply for Universal Credit we ask that you do so first, and then we can look at support for you afterwards.

If an individual or family meets these criteria, or if you think that you might meet these criteria, then you can self refer by filling out the form on our website. It's really simple and it only takes several minutes to do so.

You can also be referred by an organisation. Charities, schools and other organisations in the area that make a successful referral (which is one that leads to a grant for a new applicant), will receive a referral award of £1,500 to help them continue their work in the community.

Even social support workers for Kensington and Chelsea Council can nominate a charity working with individuals in Kensington to receive £1,500 for any successful referrals that they make.

How can I get in contact or find out more?

Our website, www.campdencharities.org.uk is pretty bare bones at the moment, but we're working on launching a new website in the near future.

If you have any questions, please email grants@campdencharities.org.uk or call 020 7243 0551, and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can. Thank you very much.

FIND OUT MORE…

Website: www.campdencharities.org.uk

Facebook: @CampdenChariti1

Twitter: @CampdenChariti1