By devolving power to residents, grantmaking can be much more effective

In November 2019, we set up a Public Living Room in the backroom of the Blackbird Leys Library. It was a busy place for people in Blackbird Leys to come and relax, chat with other people, and pursue hobbies. You could see kids doing arts and crafts, people doing portraits of each other, or talking over the jigsaw puzzle with a cup of tea.

Whilst this has been going on, we have been having lots of interesting conversations with people about their hopes and dreams for their lives, their community, and the people living in it. We have welcomed residents to come up with ideas for things that they could do to bring more people together and do more positive things together.

Lily rang me to discuss an idea…

One Wednesday evening, after a conversation over the jigsaw puzzle, Lily, a regular with her daughter at the living room, rang me to discuss an idea for a project.

A few weeks later, back in February, Lily brought 2 other women to the living room to share their idea with others, to get approval for project funding, and support to set up the project.

Rather than pitching to me and me deciding whether this was something that the community needed and deserved the funding for, 2 other regulars at the living room (local Mums), listened to Lily’s idea, gave her feedback, and then approved £2,000 of funding!

Lily is from Rwanda. She was born there but has lived in Oxford for many years. Her daughter has only ever lived in the UK but Lily and her husband, David, want to ensure that as well as growing up and living in British society, she also learns about her Rwandan culture and can connect with her family living there. Lily and other women in Blackbird Leys want to set up a Rwandan youth club for children and young people from Rwandan backgrounds and their friends living in Blackbird Leys, to come and learn about Rwandan culture together. It was highlighted by the women listening to the project idea (one British and one Romanian) that this would be really beneficial for children and young people in Blackbird Leys to learn about the cultures of their friends and neighbours as there is a need for greater cultural understanding across young people and families in Blackbird Leys.

A lot has changed in the past few months…

A lot has changed since February and, sadly, we are now in a position, because of the coronavirus, where Lily isn’t able to set up the project that she had dreamed of, (for the time being!) If they were to set it up, they feel that it would exclude members of the community who didn’t yet feel able to attend groups like that. However, Lily and David have a lot of ideas for what they could spend this money on to support the community at the moment. They will decide amongst themselves what the best way of spending the money is. I went around last night for a chat and to drop off the card which has £2,000 on it for them to spend!

I am thrilled that Lily and her family are responsible for distributing this money. By devolving power to residents and communities in this way, grantmaking can be much more effective and informed. They know what their community needs and can listen to find out when they don’t quite know. They can get people the support that they need quickly and efficiently.