Community funding of £40,000 has been shared between 11 charities that will help one project provide free skateboarding sessions.

The Brent Cross Community Fund has awarded the grants to charities in the surrounding area since 2019.

To date, it has gifted £140,000 so that charities benefit from the area’s regeneration.

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Winners of the grant include, a Farsi-speaking women’s group that supports suffering from poor mental health, as well as women and girl’s fitness classes.

One of the winners is the Keep Rolling Project – a group that runs skateboarding and art workshops to inspire young people to become more active and confident.

Rachael Sherlock, accredited skateboard GB coach, from Keep Rolling Project said: “The Brent Cross Community Fund will allow us to inspire and empower young skaters, especially girls, to grow into confident and strong leaders.

“It will also help us to create an inclusive community by providing these sessions for free.”

This Is Local London: Keep Rolling Project workshop. Picture: Keep Rolling ProjectKeep Rolling Project workshop. Picture: Keep Rolling Project

Another recipient is The Boys Clubhouse. It is a support service for boys and young men from the Jewish community who experience isolation, depression, addiction, homelessness and in extreme cases suicide.

The charity runs free gym sessions that are supported by counsellors and mentors which welcome up to 40 participants a week to have a place to connect.

Its director and head of services Ari Leaman said: “We are enormously grateful to The Brent Cross Community Fund for their generous support which will help us extend our gym facilities.

“Our most extreme homeless cases are young men, who are not in employment, education or training, as well as having no connections with their families and therefore they are unable to support themselves financially. 

“The training in the gym programmes not only help the young men improve their physical health it also helps with their attitude to eating more healthily and has a very positive on their mental health.”

Barnet Council’s leader councillor Barry Rawlings said: “Community funds like this play an important role in ensuring local projects benefit from the wider regeneration in the area.

“I look forward to seeing what these 11 new organisations achieve.”