Near Neighbours- A Celebration

What is Near Neighbours?

Near Neighbours exists to support small projects as they serve members of their community, and seek to develop their structure and strategy. We provide mentoring for newer project leaders, invite partner projects onto relevant training courses, visit group sessions, and introduce people as widely as possible so that they can establish their own networks and links. Near Neighbours knows that bringing together people from different backgrounds, faiths and ways of operating creates dynamic partnerships and collaborations that can achieve far more than groups working alone.

Community Grants

We have been able to facilitate the awarding of 159 small grants of Government funding between 2016-2022 to 101 projects in Nottingham, totalling £548,107.49. This money has gone towards developing a wide of projects and programmes, supporting community groups, women’s groups, activities for young people, people with mental health conditions, groups of Muslims, groups providing food, refugees and asylum seekers, African groups – and more. Through bringing people and projects together, we have helped to play our part in making Nottingham a hospitable place to live.

Near Neighbours and Covid-19

Since the COVID pandemic, Near Neighbours has had the privilege of getting alongside over 30 local projects seeking to support their communities through the lockdown, transforming their in-person support to digital support, helping people understand the government guidelines and vaccination programme, and then helping community members to re-emerge following the easing of restrictions. It has been an incredibly difficult time for many people in Nottingham, and our partner projects have been there for many people, offering specific and relevant support.

One group changed their normal food bank collection project, and instead delivered hampers of food to their community members alongside recipe cards, and an invite to an online cook-along. Another group produced COVID vaccination information in a number of languages, to help their community members understand what they could do next. Support groups met online through Zoom or WhatsApp, and one group celebrated this digital move as a real blessing because it enabled women experiencing domestic abuse to access support without leaving home and facing questions as to where they had been.

Real People Honest Talk

It has been an honour to walk alongside such inspiring projects and people who are serving small and large sectors of the community in extraordinary ways. In January 2022, we were able to hear from 4 of our partner projects about what they would like to see change in the future to benefit their lives and community through Real People Honest Talk. The 4 participating groups represented young refugees and asylum seekers, Arabic-speaking women new to the UK, African and Caribbean women seeking unity and collective action, and a group of refugee and asylum seeker parents whose children attend a weekend homework project. The goals which the groups set were both practical and lofty – challenging some tangible obstacles, but also creating space for people to ‘belong’. This is ultimately what Near Neighbours nurtures in our partner projects.

Near Neighbours- A Pause...

In 2022, we are unfortunately taking a pause while new funding can be secured, but we hope to be back soon, walking alongside local projects and people, offering support where we can, encouraging collaboration and seeing our cities become increasingly unified and welcoming.

We would like to thank Lindsay, Beth, Farah and Golesedi for their hard work over the last 7 years in facilitating this work in Nottingham!