Join our joint event with the London Communities Emergencies Partnership!
What if residents could choose how to improve their communities? They are uniquely placed to understand exactly what their communities need to thrive, so Big Local put it in their hands.
Big Local was a long-term funding programme, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, which ran from 2012 to 2026. 150 communities across England each received £1million to spend over 10-15 years. Big Local was an experimental approach to funding communities. Unlike short-term, top-down funding programmes, it was resident-led, hyper-local and non-prescriptive. Local residents decided how to use the funding to make their area a better place to live.
Because Big Local was non-prescriptive, resident boards were able to respond rapidly to changing conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalating living costs that followed, the Big Local funding structure gave communities exactly what they needed. There are also good examples of how Big Local areas responded to long term but changing local conditions, for example, serious violence.
Join us for our quarterly partnership meeting to hear from Big Local’s Senior Programme Coordinator Lucy Thurley. Lucy will give insights into their 15 year journey, where you will discover:
Key learnings from the project
Real-world examples and success stories
How the funding worked
How faith communities were involved
…and more!
In this meeting you will also get the opportunity to network and work through locally-led resilience challenges in breakout rooms. Please also come ready with updates from your organisation that you would like to share with the group.
Date: 10 June 2026
Time: 10-11am
Location: Zoom
London Boroughs Faiths Network 