We welcomed North London Community Fund (NLCF) recipients to our celebration event at EcoPark House in May to share their learnings, connect in person, and learn about the incredible work taking place across north London.
The morning kicked off with a tour of the Resource Recovery Facility. This is where recyclable and reusable materials are sorted and separated from waste before being sent to the Energy from Waste facility.
Back at EcoPark House, we delivered a short presentation celebrating the success of the 2024/25 recipients and introduced the NLWA team who will be supporting the 2025/26 recipients over the coming year. We then heard from three organisations funded during the 2024/25 year, who shared their experiences of the community fund and showcased the fantastic work achieved.
First, Alison Griffin from Forest Recycling Project spoke about the impact of their Tool Library scheme in Walthamstow. Since launching in 2020, the library has facilitated over 10,000 tool loans. Thanks to support from the NLCF, FRP exceeded their target with 553 members. The groups tool library has been worked into a replicable model that can be shared with other organisations and boroughs.
Next, Fiona Dear from the Restart Project presented London Repair Vouchers, one of the two large awards from 2024/25. The project is being delivered in partnership with ReLondon and is using incentivisation to encourage residents to opt for repair. The initiative provides north London residents with vouchers covering 50% of electrical repair costs.
Finally, Lisa Percival from Forest Fixers shared the successes and challenges of running a community repair group. Over the last year, Forest Fixers held 23 repair cafes and 22 repair clubs, resulting in a whopping 130 appliances being kept in circulation. Organisations are offered support with communications as part of the funding opportunity, which was a welcomed addition as one of the biggest challenges faced by the group is publicity.
We look forward to meeting with all 2025/26 recipient organisations in the coming months as they roll out their funded projects. Keep an eye out on our events page to see the events coming up for residents to get involved. To view the full list of this year's funded initiatives, visit the NLCF webpage, or head to our NLCF map to see all the groups we have funded since launching the NLCF in 2017.
Published
1 July 2025