From hedgehog highways to healthy activities for young people, there is a wide range of community projects looking to make a positive impact in the local area that are hoping for your help.

The council’s Ealing Together Fund is helping residents find the means to get their ideas off the ground and, after launching its latest round in October, a number of proposed projects have been told they will receive backing from the council if they can raise the rest of the money through crowdfunding and gain public support.

This is where you come in.

You can find the projects on the website of Spacehive, the council’s crowdfunding partner. They are looking for your backing – whether through donations or volunteering, or both.

If they can hit their targets, the hope is that these projects can then get under way in spring.

You can see which the projects the council has announced it will be backing financially, below. Council officers will also give successful projects helpful advice.

There is a pot of £100,000 in the Ealing Together Fund. The selected projects have been offered a maximum of £10,000 for the capital elements (substantial, physical parts) of a project – and no more than 50% of its costs. There was also a simplified route for smaller projects (costing less than £3,000), with less criteria to qualify.

‘Go and check out the projects’

Councillor Jasbir Anand, the council’s cabinet member for thriving communities, said: “I encourage everyone to go and check out the latest projects looking for your support because there have been so many wonderful schemes to have received backing from the fund.

“Recent projects have included Save Ealing’s Swifts, to put up specially-made birdboxes around the borough to help support the dwindling swift population; Ealing Writing Trail, which is an interactive walking route with writing workshops and a focus on mental wellbeing; and Garden Share, which is tackling food poverty and loneliness for the disabled and older people.”

Another recent start-up project, which received funding last year, was the Brent Valley Golf Academy. It has proved so successful that it was able to run a second year, with additional funds from the council. And, as you can read in our recent story, it is now preparing for a long-term future.

The selected Ealing Together Fund community projects

• Safe access at Lammas Park croquet wants to make it easier to get to the croquet lawns in Lammas Park in Ealing, especially for those with low mobility and disability. This will include repairing patio areas and steps and adding handrails
• Re-Made in Park Royal wants to set up a ‘materials exchange hub’ to connect artists and other creative makers with waste and surplus materials from local industries, film studios and construction projects – providing Park Royal’s Creative Enterprise Zone (and beyond) access to useful objects that would otherwise end in landfill
• Community Cohesion in Ealing wants to provide health activities and advocacy for families and young people in the Dormers Wells area – including football training, walking and cycling
• A creative development programme wants to train young people (16-25) from black, Asian, and minority communities in skills useful for entering the creative industries. This includes photography, broadcasting, videography, editing, event organisation and using cameras. It intends to set up 15-week programmes using award-winning experts and providing mentoring opportunities
• Umeed Wellbeing Hub wants to provide more therapeutic activities, advice and support to local vulnerable people through a new activity centre in Southall, including physical exercise, art, music and training
• Build Urban Hedgehog Highways is a project by Ealing Wildlife Group. London’s hedgehogs are in trouble, with the city’s population falling by nearly a third since 2000, and this project seeks to build on a pilot scheme in Hanwell and Pitshanger to raise awareness and help hedgehogs. This will include practical conservation workshops and habitat creation days for families in parks, and support from the Zoological Society of London to develop a map of hedgehog sightings
• Ealing Wellbeing Hub for Children is a plan for a school-based therapy centre offering free emotional and mental health support for local children and parents/carers.