Community projects empower local residents

Community projects empower local residents

12 February 2025

In 2024, we supported organisations delivering projects ranging from dance classes to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of young people, to reducing health inequalities for older people living with HIV.

One of these projects was BME Health Forum’s Healthy Lifestyles, Health Equalities, which aims to reduce health inequalities affecting Black and Minority Ethnic communities. 

Using our grant, the organisation partnered with the Iranian Association in Hammersmith, to support members of the Iranian community to make three lifestyle changes to improve their health over three months.

"I was shy and sensitive, but since coming here I feel I can open up."

Healthy Lifestyles participant.

One participant shared how the sessions have improved her mental health. She said: “It’s helped me a lot. Before this, I was alone and didn’t have many friends to talk to and I was very, very depressed. Now, I’ve found lots of friends and it helps my mental wellbeing. I was shy and sensitive, but since coming here I feel I can open up.”

The sessions have also improved her physical health. She said: “I never exercised before, and now I exercise every day for at least five minutes when I wake up.”

For lots of participants, the goal was to adapt their diet to help lose weight or manage health conditions such as diabetes. Collectively, the group lost a total of 60kg.

We plan to support eight more projects across north west London in 2025 to support the health and wellbeing of the often-marginalised communities in our area.

Learn more about the projects we’ve funded through our Compassionate Communities programme.

For more articles like this, read our Winter 2025 edition of Focus.