Funded projects

The following are a selection of community projects funded by Near Neighbours.

Jewish Volunteering Network

The Jewish Volunteering Network is working with InterFaith Action to promote volunteering amongst young people in Barkingside, Redbridge. The project has three phases: a half day seminar and information event, volunteer placements with local community projects, and a final celebration and story sharing event. The initial seminar provides training on working collaboratively with other faiths, provides information about volunteering and creating social action projects, and helps students to discover local volunteering opportunities in advance of their placements.

Muslim Youth Work Foundation

The Muslim Youth Work Foundation, based in Birmingham, provides capacity building and advice for groups working with Muslim young people, as well as directly providing services and opportunities itself.  This project brings together young people from different backgrounds, recruited from two diverse schools in Saltley. The young people come from Asian Muslim, White British, and Polish backgrounds, and are working together over a number of sessions to plan, film, and edit a short film about life in their community.

This short film has now been completed, it can be seen by following the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brl6BhYr8vM

New Shoots Gardening Club

New Shoots Gardening Club in Leicester is acting as the lead organisation on a project to develop an area of unused outside space beside the local library on the edge of a newly built estate. The project is actively engaging the area’s diverse faith communities, and will partner with the local authority, community payback service, and a local college. It’s recruiting volunteers of all backgrounds and ages to work together to develop the space for community use, with the view being to install a community garden and children's play area.

Priests-Imams: Oldham

A group of priests and imams in the Glodwick area of Oldham have begun building relationships through informal meal sharing. The group involves Christian and Muslim leaders in the town who want to build bridges between themselves and amongst their communities. They will establish regular monthly meals, alternating between mosques and churches, to build relationships and discuss issues in the community, with a view to including leaders of other faith groups in the near future.