In this article, Charity Digital explore how the sector is using artificial intelligence in services in 2025, including developing chatbots, making predictions, and becoming more agile. Take a look here.
Whatever your fundraising target is, the team at easyfundraising can help you get there. This month, they are offering 250 exclusive fundraising packs to organisations in our area.
To get your complimentary pack, register for free funding with easyfundraising (it’s free) and when prompted, schedule a call with a member of the easyfundraising team who will send you your pack and explain how easyfundraising can help your organisation with funding. But be quick – once the packs are gone, they’re gone!
easyfundraising is a free, easy, and accessible way for your network of volunteers, staff and trustees to raise funds for you. They simply shop online with their favourite retailers, including ebay, Booking.com, Tesco, Trainline, Argos, M&S, and 8,000 others via the easyfundraising website or app and the retailer they shop with sends your organisation monetary donations. Find out more here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/hammersmith-and-fulham/
We are excited to announce that London Resilience has commissioned Protection Approaches to establish a new Equalities Partnership within the London Resilience Forum.
This partnership will provide a space for equity-focused and equality-led organisations to shape how London plans for and responds to emergencies and crises in a manner that centres the perspectives and needs of various marginalised communities in London.
Emergencies – from the COVID-19 pandemic to flooding, terror incidents, fire, or the cost-of-living crisis – do not affect all communities equally. People already facing structural inequality often face the greatest harms. The Equalities Partnership will work to ensure that community expertise informs city-wide emergency planning, and that equity organisations are supported as strategic partners in building a more resilient London.
If your group works primarily with marginalised communities, communities who face additional barriers at times of crisis, or individuals with protected characteristics as defined in the Equalities Act, you can feed into what the Equalities Partnership will look like and how it will work.
You can share your perspective with the Protection Approaches team by:
✍🏼 Responding to this questionnaire
💬 Scheduling a chat with their team by emailing farida.mostafa@protectionapproaches.org
📧 Sharing your thoughts via email at farida.mostafa@protectionapproaches.org
Charities across the UK, regardless of size, can now utilise RVS’s platform to advertise their volunteering roles. The platform, along with its identity verification service, is completely free for charities to use. Introduced in March, the initiative has been funded by contributions from players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Learn more here.
Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK) stands in full solidarity with all victims of child sexual exploitation. We welcome the recommendations made by Baroness Casey in her audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and support her calls for stronger accountability of institutions that have failed victims. We also support strengthening of laws and robust collection of ethnicity data relating to both perpetrators and victims, which will be essential for informed and effective responses to this form of abuse.
MWNUK CEO Baroness Shaista Gohir said: “A national inquiry must examine why early intervention systems failed to protect children including to what extent chronic underfunding of child protection services, along with the attitudes or inaction of frontline professionals, enabled abuse to continue unchecked. While it will also be important to recognise patterns that may exist within specific groups, including drivers that lead to their over-representation, we must not lose sight of the fact that perpetrators and victims come from all backgrounds, and a comprehensive response must reflect that reality.”
MWNUK previously ran a series of awareness-raising events across England, partnering with community organisations to encourage reporting and prevention. We also produced a set of powerful campaign videos, including:
- A survivorstory
- Pakistani men condemning the abuse
- A video in Urdu, tailored for harder-to-reach community members.
In 2013, we published a ground-breaking report titled Unheard Voices – Sexual Exploitation of South Asian Girls. The research was conducted to shed light on the often hidden and overlooked experiences of minority ethnic girls. Our findings reveal that, like their white peers, these girls were targeted due to their vulnerability and accessibility.
*Victims of sexual exploitation can contact Muslim Women’s Network Helpline on 0800 999 5786 / info@mwnhelpline.co.uk or via the Amal Safety Mobile iPhone App.
The UK Health Security Agency have extensive guidance and materials for supporting communities, including:
- Hot weather toolkit here
- Voluntary and community sector action card
- Beat the Heat hot weather advice
- An infographic and social media images here
- Keep up to date with Heat-Health Alerts
You can find a map of Cool Spaces across London here, and register your own too.
The Met Office’s #WeatherReady campaign also has lots of advice and guidance.
Wildfire Alert
London Fire Brigade provide guidance and support around wildfire risk on this webpage.
Social Channels
Do follow London Resilience on either BlueSky or X (Twitter) where we will be sharing content.
As part of the launch of the new Code of Fundraising Practice, we’ve published three code support guides to help fundraising organisations apply the code in practice. These guides can be used alongside the code and they focus on areas that fundraisers have told us can be complex or high-risk: documenting decisions, due diligence, and monitoring fundraising partnerships.
Read our blog from our Head of Policy, Paul Winyard, for more details about what each code support guide offers.
We’ve recently published new advice for retailers, such as supermarkets, who carry out charitable cash collections on their premises. Retailers play an important role in supporting charitable causes through providing a space for charitable collections in their stores. However, it is important that everyone involved meets certain standards to make sure fundraising occurs in a safe and secure way, so that any money raised reaches its intended purpose. You can read our blog explaining more about why we’ve published this guidance and what it covers from our Head of Proactive Regulation, Jim Tebbett.
Project Title: Eid Al-Adha Celebration
Organizer: Eastern Sudan Community Association (ESCA), London Branch
Date: Saturday, June 7, 2025, Time: 16:45 – 21:45
Venue: White City Community Centre, Central London
Total Attendance: 202 individuals (47 women, 48 men, 34 youths, 73 children)
1. Objectives
The primary goals of the Eid Al-Adha celebration were to:
1. Celebrate Eid Al-Adha with the local Sudanese community.
2. Promote and preserve Eastern Sudanese cultural heritage.
3. Support local Sudanese-owned businesses through a community bazaar.
4. Foster unity, cultural pride, and engagement among community members.
5. Provide families and children with a joyful and educational cultural experience.
2. Activities Overview
• Cultural Performances: Traditional shows by 3 Sudanese artists and a Sudanese
music group delivered live performances.
• Children’s Entertainment: Art activities and two trampoline bounce areas
provided safe and engaging fun for children.
• Recognition Ceremony: 5 community volunteers and 2 distinguished women
were honoured for their service and contributions.
• Football Recruitment: Coach Ammar Al-Qadi gave a welcome address, inviting
families to enrol their children in the ESCA football team.
• Bazaar and Refreshments: Local Sudanese vendors participated in a small
bazaar offering food and cultural items.
3. Target Audience
• Sudanese families and individuals residing in the Hammersmith and Fulham area.
• Broader community members with an interest in cultural exchange and Sudanese
traditions.
4. Expected Benefits
• Fosters cultural pride and intergenerational knowledge exchange.
• Supports Sudanese entrepreneurs and artisans.
• Enhances ESCA’s visibility and credibility within the community.
• Builds stronger community bonds through shared celebration and participation.
5. Conclusion
The Eid Al-Adha Celebration organized by ESCA was a successful one-day cultural
event that brought together over 200 participants for a memorable and meaningful
experience. By blending entertainment, tradition, and community recognition, the event
effectively promoted Sudanese heritage, supported local businesses, and reinforced
community solidarity. Continued support and collaboration will enable ESCA to deliver
even greater impact in future community events
Nearly a year after their General Election victory, the Labour government has finalised its spending plans for the rest of the Parliament. The 2025 Spending Review, announced by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday, sets out government department budgets up to 2029/30.
This review provides the blueprint for how the government will operate in the years ahead, as well as what local governments and the devolved governments will have available. It will affect many statutory services that charity beneficiaries rely on or that charities have close interactions with. Read more from Jay Kennedy here.
sobus
20 Dawes Road, London, SW6 7EN
Telephone 020 7952 1230
Email info@sobus.org.uk
Registered Charity No.1071089
and Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England No.03471416
Sobus is a new Community Development Agency for Hammersmith & Fulham. It has been created through the merger of the Community and Voluntary Sector Association Hammersmith & Fulham (CaVSA) and the Fulham Community Partnership Trust (FCPT). Building on the strengths of both organisations, sobus aims to provide a wider range of support services for local charities, community groups, social enterprises and start up businesses.