Putting the spotlight on inspiring stories from our community, including words on the benefit of community and write ups from projects visits.
Winter can be a tough time for many. While some spend the festive season gathering with friends and loved ones, others are reminded of their own isolation and this year even more of us will be stuck home alone due to [...]
We are very excited to announce the first round of awardees for the Strong Foundations Grant. Back at the beginning of 2020, almost 100 community groups in Manchester and Salford applied to the Sir Robert McAlpine Strong Foundations Grant. With so [...]
We are very excited to announce the Brent Cross South Community Fund 2020 Winners! The Brent Cross South Community Fund returned for its second year in May 2020. This year they had a specific focus on supporting local initiatives which are [...]
Black History Month is a time when we focus our energy on celebrating the rich histories of Black individuals and communities. The first British Black History Month was held in London in 1987, led by Linda Bellos as a community-led response [...]
To celebrate Communities Week 2020, the organisations behind My Community came together to highlight and amplify the work of the community groups and local businesses that form the backbone and heartbeat of our neighbourhoods. Throughout 2020 we have been blown away [...]
Recently, we partnered with BUD to run a workshop called “Storytelling for Racial Justice” with BAME community leaders and those working with BAME communities. BUD founder and CEO Georgina Wilson explains why we felt it was important to develop this workshop. [...]
For food growers, September is a month to harvest, share and enjoy what has been grown through the year and each September the Soil Association use their ‘Organic September’ campaign to raise awareness of the many benefits of organic food and [...]
For many of us, September’s synonymous with getting back to school. After six months away from the classroom this year's back to school feeling will be even headier than usual. While kids get back into the rhythm of school, we’re reflecting [...]
To celebrate Pride Month 2020, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight a few of the community organisations in the Semble network who are run by and for LGBTQ+ people. Celebrating community action Black Country Fusion were formed in 2016 [...]
On Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Semble took part in #BlackoutTuesday, standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Following this, the Semble team has begun to discuss how we can do more to help support the fight against racism. This [...]
On Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Semble took part in #BlackoutTuesday, standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Following this, the Semble team has begun to discuss how we can do more to help support the fight against racism. For [...]
On Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Semble took part in #BlackoutTuesday, standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Following this, the Semble team has begun to discuss how we can do more to help support the fight against racism. This [...]
The Great Get Together: Together is Connection, Compassion, Community. Click the button below for social media resources and guides from The Great Get Together, including: Social Media Toolkit, a guide to posting on social media How to Use Powerpoint to [...]
The Great Get Together: Together is Connection, Compassion, Community. Click the button below for printable resources from The Great Get Together, including: Poster, postcards, selfie boards Colouring sheets Recipes from Prue Leith and Delia Smith GET THE RESOURCES [...]
Over the last few weeks we have awarded over £350,000 in emergency funding to schools, local charities and community groups to help alleviate some of the stress caused by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. We have paused our Local Community [...]
The Great Get Together: Together is Connection, Compassion, Community. Click the button below to see the Loneliness Toolkit, a brief guide to loneliness and tips on connecting, co-produced by Marmalade Trust and The Great Get Together, covering: What is Loneliness? [...]
Women need to be at the decision making tables, both in government and within our communities. Semble is proud to support #EqualPower, a campaign to get more women in all their diversity into politics. This summer, they're running a programme of FREE [...]
It’s mental health awareness week this month and never has there seemed like a better time to focus our attention on this. Alongside the overt public health crisis bubbles away a quieter but no less potent crisis surrounding our mental health. [...]
Covid-19 has turned our world upside down. Many community projects, centred on bringing people together and collective action, find themselves unable to carry out their core work. At the same time, the vulnerable and isolated communities that these projects support are [...]
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we're shining a light on some of the ways women are pushing boundaries and driving change in their communities. We’re lucky to meet many brilliant women through our work at Semble. Here we recognise 8 [...]
The winner of 2020's first #Greggs4Good photo competition is... Haircuts4Homeless, who have won an extra £250 funding for their project. Congratulations to the whole team, everyone at Greggs Foundation loved your image! When Stewart Roberts brought his hairdressing scissors along to [...]
With Valentine's Day this month and all the talk of happy hearts around, it’s the perfect moment to celebrate how one Devon-based community is keeping hearts beating. Martin Copeman shared his story with Sembler Chloe last week. This is the account [...]
Grassroots action is powerful. Why? Because communities are wildly diverse and by working from a community level we can create tailored solutions. Of course, action requires resources. That’s where funding comes in. Here’s a spotlight on one of the funds we [...]
Are you hungry for good news? Us too. Thankfully there’s bundles of it. You just have to know where to look. The papers are full to bursting with the challenges we face, from climate crisis to social inequality. It’s an overwhelming [...]
During a visit to Birmingham this Autumn I had the pleasure to speak with two fantastic community projects in the area: The Rainbow Bridge Cafe and Go-Woman! Alliance CIC. Although very different from each other, these projects have something very important [...]
Thank you to all the brilliant #Greggs4Good projects who took the time to participate in the latest photo competition. It has been lovely to read your updates and see photos of the great work you are doing - we hope you [...]
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future” – JF Kennedy So spoke a president. But what can communities learn from the past and present to guide [...]
Groundwork UK has been exploring the landscape for community groups in 2019. Up and down the UK, people are getting together and making things happen in their communities. From community gardens to youth clubs, Friends of Parks groups to local sports [...]
Picture by Sadie Catt. When I'm not working for Semble, I help to run a local community project that I set up while at university. Bristol Junk Food (formerly Bristol Student Junk Food) is a pop up surplus food cafe running [...]
Local community projects receive funding as part of Carling Made Local campaign working to invest in local projects and groups to help communities thrive. In 2018 Carling, the UK’s number one lager, and Everards of Leicestershire launched ‘We Got This’. This [...]
Wellcome Community Action is a team volunteering campaign created by Wellcome in 2016 to support & establish relationships with grassroots projects local to their London office. Wellcome Community Action is now in its fourth year and in 2019 took place between [...]
Community life in the Liverpool Region is buzzing with action! It felt great to be back where Semble (then Project Dirt) made its first foray beyond the capital – marking the start of our journey to working UK wide. These days [...]
We have been so impressed by the standard of blogs posted and have loved hearing about how each of your projects have developed. The team at the Greggs Foundation have found it incredibly inspiring to learn more about your projects and [...]
Whitley Bay Community Allotment, a volunteer-run community garden providing small growing plots for local residents in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, has received funding to purchase numerous fruit trees as part of the Sizzling and Carling Community Action campaign, a Carling [...]
Semble worked with Friends of Weelsby Woods a volunteer group dedicated to maintaining and improving the Grimsby-based public park, to support them to win funds for new animal carvings and benches as part of the Sizzling and Carling Community Action campaign. [...]
Last weekend saw the official re-opening of the Portslade Cattle Arch. We've been working with this impressive project since it was selected a few months ago as one of the trial projects for the Cif Hello Beautiful Neighbourhood Project. I finally [...]
With the Gardner girls away for a week of holiday, I was lucky enough to get a rare evening out to get stuck into some mid-week community activity on my doorstep - this time, with the fantastic Woking Good Gym! Good [...]
The environment is at the heart of so much of what we do within the Semble community, and climate change is a vital issue in the hearts of most Semblers. The Climate Emergency declaration made by the UK and Irish Parliaments, [...]
London’s one of the greenest cities in Europe. That’s right – our capital isn’t all smog and tarmac. There are trees, flowers, parks and ponds out there too. Need convincing? Check out the London National Park City campaign. Or even better [...]
In a little corner in the middle of the greenery that is Stanmer Park, located in a plot of land rented from the Council, we find 15 amazing community projects and organisations, united under a cooperative called Stanmer Organics. We have [...]
I’ve just returned from a marvellous Easter week of activities with the family. And wow, what a week to be away from home. A UK-visit and speech from the inspirational Greta Thunberg; a week of extensive activity by Extinction Rebellion (itself [...]
Stress is one of the biggest causes of health issues today, and it probably affects all of us in some way. Beyond the usual stressors (hello deadlines, packed trains, traffic noise, and other work and family issues) recent research [...]
Charlotte Ryan tells me, brimming with enthusiasm, about her dream. This dream isn’t riches or fame, but to have an enormous warehouse, to fill with clothes, cushions, cookers, curtains, crockery, cots, and everything in between. But for Charlotte, this period is [...]
One of the best things about being part of the Semble team is meeting the amazing project champions and visiting them while their project is in full swing. This time I rolled up my sleeves for an afternoon of cooking with Nureen from [...]
The team at Semble believe in supporting doers who are brave enough to share their stories. When Bertie Herrtage, Senior Coach at Crowdfunder, shared his project idea, we wanted to be part of the story. Bertie went on a journey around [...]
Walking through the doors of Oasis Cardiff, a drop in day centre for refugees and asylum seekers, the feeling of warmth and good energy instantly overrides the gloomy, drizzly day outside. I arrive about 12pm and can hear (and smell) the hustle [...]
We loved speaking to Nureen from Feed Me Good about the Feed Me Good Heritage Cookery Club project at the Eden Communities Camp. We also spoke to Harry from Cultivate Cornwall about the COGS project - Community Organisations and Groups Support. [...]
How did one act of kindness at Christmas become a charity with hundreds of volunteers that changes lives of people in London? This Christmas The Food Chain celebrates its 30th anniversary; I visited Clifford McManus, their Community Events and Fundraising Coordinator, [...]
Jo Scott, talking about Millisle Youth Forum, is one of the hugely inspiring people the Semble team met at the Eden Project Communities Community Camp last November. This is one of a series of stories from the outstanding movers and shakers running or starting [...]
At the Eden Project Community Camp, we saw so many great speakers, and we couldn’t wait to share them with you! For the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing stories from just some of the outstanding movers and shakers we got [...]
