Speaker 1: The tenets of Rastafari are that the hungry be fed, the sick be nourished, the aged protected, the children cared for, and so for me to do this was just natural, it was like, oh I've got a chance to do what Rastafari is. Rastafari is a national park, it's a national park, it's a national park, it's a national park, it's a national park, it's a national park, it's a national park, it's a national

Speaker 2: park. The pandemic affected us massively and we have to adapt in a very short time in order to do the work that we do online. My name is Jenny Tobar, Executive Director of Latin American Women's Aid. Latin American Women's Aid is an organization led by and for Latin American women and other women. We are specialized in gender violence. We have two main services, that is the Refuge Accommodation that we provide and also our Advice Center. In our Advice Center, obviously the demand increased massively. Women were calling every day, during different times, during the night. They had a lot of mental health issues because they were very scared and that was the only safe space probably they had to talk.

Speaker 3: We're a very small organization and funding, although it's essential to our business, at that time in 2020, it was hard for us to access. I'm Candice James, the Manager of Loughborough Community Centre. We was initially approached in August by Impact and Urban Health. I was quite sceptical because I thought it was just too good to be true. In my experience, nothing comes easy and the process in terms of funding is always very complicated, but actually it was a very open process. They genuinely want to know about us and I felt the process was different, so we took a chance.

Speaker 4: We're small organizations, we're community businesses. Not all of our work is commercially viable, it's not for profit. I'm Afshin Kabirashidh and I'm CEO of Repowering London. Repowering specializes in community energy projects. A lot of the families that we were supporting in Brixton, through an area of high deprivation, they weren't able to heat their homes or heat their food. Unrestricted funding allowed us to do what we thought was right and what was needed in the community to focus on our fuel poverty program. But also the ability to be able to invest in training for our staff.

Speaker 1: Everything that we do is from the heart. It comes from inside first. When I first spoke to Impact on Urban Health, it was time to just say it like it is. I'm Sister Stella Headley and it's Sister with a T-A-H. I'm from RMUK Wellbeing. We support vulnerable households, primarily with healthy, nutritious food. One of the key learnings with the funding was to be bold enough to just say it like it is. Even more so, it was important that we were listened to. What this has given us is the opportunity to put together our business plan and actually start to move forward long term.

Speaker 5: We've learnt a lot. I think one of the biggest things that we've learnt is based around trust. Within the actual way we structured the fund. My name is Fareed Kellican. I'm a Portfolio Manager at Impact on Urban Health. We tackle health inequalities in Lambeth and Southwark. We focus on the social determinants of health. We historically haven't worked as much as we should have with organisations that are grassroots. We also wanted to focus on lots of organisations that were black or diverse-led as they were chronically underfunded, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic. One aspect that I found really enjoyable was to hear how pleasant those human interactions were. I think it changed how a relationship can be formed between a funder and a fundee, or as a partnership. I felt that was a really special aspect of the fund. We are nowhere near complete in our journey. We're still learning and making mistakes. But we feel that this is a really good course of action to adopt within our own organisation and to encourage others to do the same. Impact on Urban Health www.impact.org