North London Community Fund - Summary of projects

Over seven months, Hive Studios delivered 15 repair, restore, reuse and sustainable design workshops, engaging with 86 local people, alongside two classroom workshops that engaged with 25 young people. A two-week exhibition attracted 82 visitors to its opening, contributing to 176 attendees across all project activities. The project also repurposed and upcycled more than 101 items, helping participants develop practical skills while promoting creative approaches to waste prevention.

• 71 residents engaged and 120 indirect beneficiaries
• 13,750 followers reached on Twitter and Instagram
• Developed and delivered a four-week educational programme as well as online content

Transition Leytonstone is a community initiative that aims to make Leytonstone the best and most sustainable place to be. 

The project allowed solar panels to be acquired and installed to power a large fridge and matching freezer inside a storage garage on an off-grid allotment site near Leytonstone Town Centre. This additional food storage allowed more surplus food to be offered to those in need through the Leytonstone Community Fridge. 

They were able to give back to those in need in the community as well as preventing food waste, whilst also streamlining and making their operations environmentally friendly with the solar panels. 

To see what Transition Leytonstone are doing now, please see their website. 

Octopus Community Network (Octopus) is a mutual collaboration between 14 of Islington's largest multi-purpose community centres. They collaborate to co-produce and co-deliver programmes, projects and activities informed by local communities.

Octopus received funding for their 'Relish Embellish Cafe', which delivered a series of replicable community-based participatory workshops that creatively challenged textile consumption. These were delivered through a collaboration of five multi-purpose community centres in Islington. Octopus Community Network is developing as a Social Action Hub and a key element of this is to outreach to and engage Islington’s diverse communities in the role of ‘Community Organiser’. Embedding a Community Organising approach into the design and delivery of the Relish Embellish project ensures that people have the know-how and capability to take the ‘Toolkit’ produced and use it in other areas of Islington, supported by their Network of 15 multi-purpose community centres. 

As part of the project they ran a Christmas jumper upcycling competition to engage families with waste prevention. By the end of the project, 92 residents had engaged with the workshops and over 200 families were directly reached through the Christmas jumper campaign. 

For more information on Octopus see their website, or their Instagram. 

Kentish Town City Farm runs a wide range of community activities, including educational workshops, petting zoos and gardening clubs.

The Farm received funding during 2021–2022 to develop an on-site reuse and recycling hub alongside a programme of workshops designed to help local residents develop practical skills in repair, reuse and sustainable living. A key aim of the project was to co-design the hub with the local community to ensure it met local needs. This approach proved successful, with the space being used for community initiatives such as Halloween costume swaps.

Alongside repair, reuse and recycling workshops, the project also delivered upcycling and craft sessions, equipping residents with practical skills to prevent waste and extend the life of everyday items. To better understand the project's impact on waste prevention, Kentish Town City Farm also worked with University College London (UCL) to measure and evaluate its outcomes, helping to strengthen the evidence base for the project's environmental benefits.

For more information, visit their website. 

Hackney City Farm offers children and adults the opportunity to connect with farm animals, grow food, and learn practical skills that support healthier, more sustainable lifestyles.

This year, Hackney City Farm received funding to further develop its Get Loose project, with the aim of becoming self-funding in its waste reduction activities through the zero-waste shop. Through the Government's Kickstart Scheme, the project recruited two full-time employees, enabling the shop to double its opening hours and generate additional income to support waste prevention programmes. This also allowed senior staff to focus on delivering waste prevention information and public engagement activities.

As part of this work, the project produced new educational content for a recently installed information screen, publishing one new piece of content every fortnight. To raise awareness of the zero-waste shop and encourage wider community participation, the team also developed four video advertisements and four promotional posters, strengthening the project's outreach and visibility.

For more information and when you can visit Hackney City Farm, see their website. 

Lifeafterhummus are a Community Benefit Society who provides food aid by operating a social supermarket and re-use centre for 80 local households and a redistribution network that supports 11 local hostels, 1 after-school club and a faith group. They also run passive clothing rails at 2 local nurseries, 1 local secondary school and 1 local library.

They were awarded funding again this year, this time for development of a reuse hub that looks to create long lasting behaviour change and waste prevention working with underrepresented Bengali and Somali community groups in Camden.

The reuse hub focused on redistributing surplus food and textiles, they approximated that they were diverting 150 - 200kg of household items per month for a total of more than 9500kg of waste diverted and and 300 residents engaged every week. They were also able to use the funding towards ensuring all produce they bought for the hub were zero-waste, for instance washing up liquid and laundry powder. 

You can find out more information, at the Lifeafterhummus website. 

Garden of Earthly Delights are a community garden & educational grassroots project aiming to support our community’s health & well-being. They were awarded funding for their offshoot project 'Woodshop of Recycled Delights'. Taking discarded timber (for example, bed frames) to be remade into garden furniture, planters, raised beds, furniture, wooden pots they taught Hackney residents upcycling skills as well as raising awareness for waste prevention. They also worked with disadvantaged individuals and upskilled them in repairing and creating furniture for home and garden use. 

The project was able to directly divert 2,458kg of timber during their workshops with residents and estimate that they diverted a further 6,644kg indirectly. They ran 39 sessions, engaging with 235 residents- 7 of whom went on to become workshop facilitators themselves. 

For more information and upcoming projects, please see their website. 

Forest Recycling Project (FRP) is a charity with environmental and social aims. They engage with organisations and communities in London through a range of practical initiatives to reduce, re-use and recycle waste, and help people live sustainably.

FRP were awarded funding for 'There Should be Light' which aimed to reduce textile and furniture waste in Waltham Forest. They delivered a series of workshops focused on fabrics reuse, specifically upcycling and recycling lampshades using reused fabrics. The workshops will provide an opportunity to provide information and encouragement to repair, reuse, repurpose and recycle fabrics more widely in participants’ lives. 

100% of participants reported development in their upcycling skills and growth in their knowledge surrounding reusing fabrics to upcycle their old furniture. The team at FRP also produced an information leaflet which they distributed to 1,000 residents to spread awareness for waste prevention and practical tips for them to try at home. 

To find out the current work FRP are doing, please see their website. 

Covent Garden Dragon Hall Trust co-produced a project with young people to deliver a programme of activities that reduces WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment); provides young people with skills, knowledge and understanding around recycling and re-use; delivers information, advice & guidance and builds relationships with local communities and businesses. They planned a six-stage programme based out of the Soapbox Youth Centre in Islington: Learn - Act - Inspire - Include - Disseminate - Sustain.

Their aims were to: divert electrical waste from landfill, give young people agency over the climate emergency, provide a social space for young people suffering from social exclusion since the pandemic and creating a series of YouTube videos for easy fixing as a project legacy.

Based at the Soapbox Youth Centre, the project delivered four weekly repair and reuse courses, 40 repair drop-in sessions, seven primary school workshops, and eight community events. Overall, more than 250 young people were engaged, with 26 completing the courses, 19 attending after-school sessions, and two young people helping to develop and deliver the programme. The project diverted approximately 1,665 kg of electronic waste from landfill and redistributed 17 repaired devices to people experiencing social and digital exclusion, while increasing awareness of repair, reuse, and sustainable living across the community.

You can find the YouTube series they produced during the project here. 

For more information on Dragon Hall, visit their website. 

The first Myddleton Road Market took place in June 2013. The idea for the market came from a local resident who wanted to help to regenerate and breathe life back into the local high street.

A group of Bounds Green residents came together for this project 'Waste Not: Revamp, Repair, Reuse'. The project involved clothes swaps, food waste workshops, craft workshops and creating video content on waste saving tips. 

The project delivered eight workshops and events, including clothes swaps, food waste workshops, craft sessions and activities focused on repair and reuse. During the Covid-19 period, the project also created six films and online resources to enable residents to continue engaging with waste-saving activities remotely. These resources, alongside the project’s digital presence, helped the initiative reach a wider audience, with webpages receiving 3,249 views during the project period and the project’s social media channels building a following of 745 people.

Through its in-person workshops, the project diverted 775 kg of waste from disposal and engaged 107 residents, raising awareness of practical ways to reduce household waste. 

You can read more about the work at Myddleton Road Market on their website, or by following them on Instagram.