Community / London Faith & Belief Community Awards

Awards 2020

Faith and belief groups are at the centre of community life in London, providing vital services and support to those in need and providing a strong sense of belonging to their members and beneficiaries. This has become evermore clear in London’s response to the global pandemic of Covid-19, with faith and belief communities being at the forefront of our city’s response. Although the pandemic has created lots of uncertainty, we are certain that the power of faith and belief based social action still needs to be supported, recognised and celebrated. We need you help in identifying this inspirational work.

Nominations are now closed.

Nomination Information

Below is some guidance that may help guide your nomination. We do not want to exclude any good work. If you are not sure if your project is eligible, or need assistance with the nomination form, please get in touch by emailing: jessica@faithbeliefforum.org or calling the Community Team on: 07947 118 437.

Award categories

The London Faith & Belief Community Awards celebrate the contribution of small, unsung organisations working to ensure London is a more inclusive city.

Our categories, chosen in partnership with Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London, reflect the challenges faced by some Londoners and marginalised groups. On the nomination form, you will be asked to choose a category.

Community resourcefulness in response to Covid-19

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the lives of Londoners. Projects within this category quickly adapted their services and/or through swift innovation created new projects with a focus on the common goal of assisting those affected by the pandemic.

Health & wellbeing

Projects in this category create specialised services for the health and wellbeing of Londoners. They reduce social isolation and improve the quality of life of Londoners by supporting vulnerable people from different backgrounds.

Inspiring youth

Young people from minority backgrounds are often overlooked and may be excluded from civic life. Projects within this category work with young people to encourage leadership and participation in their local community, and connect them with opportunities beyond their neighbourhoods.

Interfaith relations

London’s neighbourhoods are multi-faith spaces where people with different faiths and beliefs share the same public spaces and services. Projects within this category build bridges across communities and create hubs that are open to all.

Improving access to services

Working at the neighbourhood level, projects within this category identify people who are often overlooked and excluded. These projects work over time to connect people to life-saving public services offered by local councils and larger charities, as well as offering advice and support at the community level.

Promoting inclusion

Londoners may face misunderstanding, isolation or exclusion because of their faith or belief. They may be further excluded, due to other aspects of their identities (e.g. ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, age and ability) – and this discrimination may take place within faith groups or wider society. Projects within this category work at the intersection between faith/belief and other aspects of identity – creating inclusive spaces.

Supporting women

Women, from all walks of life, make extraordinary contributions to their communities and the city we live in, but they’re not always recognised. This category will recognise the work of projects which support women to make change in their community through providing education, advocacy, friendship and a wider array of services.

Criteria for nominating

Our awards scheme seeks to celebrate work that is often overlooked and marginalised. You may nominate your own work or that of others.

Your nomination must identify a project:

That works at a local level within greater London
That is driven by a certain faith or non-religious belief. We welcome nominations from faith based and secular projects.
That has not previously received wider recognition. Previous award winners cannot be nominated again but we encourage recognised projects to re nominate their work.

Projects can be run by a registered charity or a community group and could be one initiative of a larger organisation or a project that is run by a place of worship or community group. It may be run entirely by volunteers or have paid staff.

The project nominated could work across communities or within their own community i.e. it does not have to have an interfaith focus.

To show record of impact, we ask that you nominate a project that has been running for over a year. This does not apply to projects nominated in the ‘Community resourcefulness in response to Covid-19’ category.

This awards scheme aims to celebrate work which reaches people with a range of identities. This year we are particularly interested in receiving nominations from Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain communities.

What is the award?

Awarded projects will receive £500 to enhance their work.

Awarded projects, recognised projects and recognised individuals will have the opportunity to:

Attend an awards ceremony in central London on 30^th November 2020.*
Meet and connect with 300 individuals an d groups from across London’s faith, belief and community sector, including Her Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London.
Gain a free place on an F&BF training workshop
Join F&BF’s Movement Builders Network and contribute to F&BF podcasts, blogs, and attend F&BF events for free.

*The Awards ceremony, set to take place in November, is subject to the current restrictions on social gatherings set out in the Government’s response to Covid-19. We will continue to assess the situation and follow the Government’s guidance. We think it is ever more important to celebrate the work of London’s faith & belief communities and so are planning for the possibility that this will be a virtual awards event or will look slightly different this year