In Our Hands supports local people to do something creative in their community.
Launched in 2026, the In Our Hands fund provides small community grants for local people in West Hendon, Burnt Oak, and Colindale.
Local people were invited to share an idea that could bring people together, care for their community, or make their local area a better place to live. 16 grants have been awarded – read more about the projects below.
The In Our Hands fund is supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
An Unruly Herbarium: an experimental plant photography series
An Unruly Herbarium: an experimental plant photography series
A herbarium is a way of fixing, preserving and classifying plant specimens on paper for scientific study. This series of creative workshops with artist Becky Lyon invites locals to explore an alternative, more lively and more personal approach to getting to know their local plants through a series of experimental photography workshop where plants shape-shift, disappear and refuse to come into focus!
Each session we will use DIY and analogue techniques to create images that embody important stories about nature in the neighbourhood. We’ll explore photos that disappear & talk about biodiversity loss, we’ll explore shape-shifting images & the control of nature. Together we’ll craft a community herbarium with a difference.
These workshops will take place across Colindale, Burnt Oak and West Hendon – important emerging destinations for grassroots growing on the fringes of North West London. These community gardens, parklands and orchards are becoming important spaces to develop new ways of caring for and connecting with nature and each other.
Join Becky Lyon for D i s p p e a r i n g Plants, an afternoon of playful, experimental photography on Sunday 17 May – find out more.
Burnt Oak Nepalese Community - Elders' Heritage Trip
Burnt Oak Nepalese Community - Elders' Heritage Trip
Burnt Oak Nepalese Community has been successful in running activities inside the community hall, but many senior ex‑Gurkha veterans are now largely house‑bound due to age and health issues, making outings difficult and increasing the risk of loneliness.
This funding will enable around 40 – 45 elders with limited mobility to take a meaningful coach trip to the Imperial War Museum, helping them reconnect with their history, honour their service, and regain a sense of pride and belonging. The visit will also be documented as part of BONC’s heritage film project, preserving their stories and sharing the impact with the wider community.
Burnt Oak Youth Artist Programme
Burnt Oak Youth Artist Programme
This legacy project strengthens the creative community in Burnt Oak by supporting young artists from underrepresented backgrounds and investing in music equipment as a long‑term local asset.
By bringing the programme back into the neighbourhood, it makes music‑making more accessible while nurturing talent, building confidence, and opening up opportunities that many young people wouldn’t otherwise have.
Colindale On The Move: A Sustainable Travel and Storyhub
Colindale On The Move: A Sustainable Travel and Storyhub
Colindale On The Move is a community‑led sustainable travel and storytelling project created by local residents and cycling advocates in Colindale South.
Combining qualified volunteer bike mechanics with community organising, the project will run three Pop‑up Travel Hubs over the summer in locations such as Silkstream Park and near new school developments. Each hub will offer free bike safety checks and repairs, supported by LCC Barnet, alongside a pop‑up exhibition exploring the history of Colindale’s old tube station and the area’s changing transport landscape.
The project will also produce custom “Sustainable Travel Maps” to help families and commuters navigate safer routes around new schools affected by bus‑stop gaps. By investing in a high‑quality shared tool kit and working with partners including LCC Barnet and Edgware Cycles, the project aims to establish a long‑term mobile workshop model for future community events.
Community Allotment Project for Refugees & Asylum Seekers
Community Allotment Project for Refugees & Asylum Seekers
This community allotment project supports refugees and asylum seekers in Barnet to garden, cook, and connect – improving wellbeing, reducing isolation, and helping people feel rooted in their new community.
Participants, who speak languages including Dari, Farsi, Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish, Amharic, Tigrinya, and Spanish, use the produce to cook traditional meals, maintain cultural practices, and access fresh, healthy food. As part of a wider long‑term vision, the project builds sustainable, inclusive community spaces that foster independence, leadership, skill‑sharing, and stronger connections between diverse local communities.
Community Outreach Research Project and Community Lunch
Community Outreach Research Project and Community Lunch
This is a research‑led project designed to strengthen community cohesion across West Hendon, Colindale, and Burnt Oak by gathering, connecting, and amplifying the stories of local residents.
Through structured listening sessions, community journalling, and ongoing engagement, the project explores lived experiences, uncovers barriers to participation, and brings together diverse narratives to inform future cultural and community activity. It is being developed in active dialogue with local partners including Colindale Library, Montrose Café Hub, Colindale Communities Trust, local faith groups, cultural associations, and community organisations.
Alongside ongoing local activity, the project will culminate in an outdoor community meal as part of the national Big Lunch, creating a shared space for residents, partners, and creatives to connect and celebrate the area’s collective stories.
Elders Chair Based Exercise Workshops
Elders Chair Based Exercise Workshops
This pilot project offers eight free chair‑based light exercise sessions for older residents at the West Hendon Community Hub, delivered by West Hendon Arts & Wellness CIC.
Developed in response to local feedback, the sessions provide a gentle, accessible alternative to standard fitness classes, which many older residents find too demanding or too far away. Each session includes an hour of supported movement focused on mobility, balance, and relaxation, followed by an hour of social time to reduce isolation and rebuild community connections. The CIC will be using the pilot to assess demand for making gentle daytime exercise a regular activity in West Hendon.
Let's Glow Together Through Motherhood
Let's Glow Together Through Motherhood
Let’s Glow Together Through Motherhood is a supportive 4 – 5 week workshop series by Dianna-Karina Ravasz designed to teach mums the basics of skincare and makeup.
Held once a week, these sessions focus on building simple, confidence-boosting routines while creating a relaxed space to connect, share, and unwind. By learning self-care practices through makeup participants can improve their wellbeing, strengthen connections with others and feel more confident in themselves.
Montrose Park Sports Day
Montrose Park Sports Day
A community Sports Day in Montrose Park bringing together intergenerational communities, families, and local fitness groups through fun, beginner‑friendly activities. The event strengthens local connections and supports a longer‑term vision for regular community fitness events, expanded park‑based activities, and ongoing participation in roller skating, calisthenics, and inclusive local sport.
Move and Stretch In Colindale
Move and Stretch In Colindale
The Colindale Gardens Seniors Friendship Circle (CGSFC) is a local voluntary group supporting the wellbeing and connection of older adults in Colindale. With 55 multicultural members aged 55+, they meet regularly in the Colindale Gardens Function Room and stay connected through WhatsApp.
The group runs low‑cost or free activities such as health talks, councillor sessions, and tasters in dance, yoga, life skills, and arts to reduce loneliness and build community. Recognising increasing mobility challenges among members, they now plan to introduce gentle exercise sessions to improve physical health, confidence, and social connection
North West London's First Ever Dye Garden
North West London's First Ever Dye Garden
Local Burnt Oak artist Ayesha Sureya aims to create North West London’s first dye garden, rooted in the communities of Burnt Oak and Colindale.
The garden will grow plants used for natural pigments and act as a living classroom where residents can learn about sustainable gardening, natural dyeing, cultural dye traditions, and ecological awareness through hands‑on workshops and foraging walks. By offering an accessible green space in an area with limited community gardens, the project will nurture wellbeing, creativity, and connection, laying the groundwork for a long‑term, community‑led hub of colour, craft, and collective care.
Refugee Digital Safety & Power Circles
Refugee Digital Safety & Power Circles
This project is led by a local Farsi‑speaking Colindale resident with direct lived experience of displacement, ensuring the work is rooted in community insight and trust. The Refugee Digital Safety & Power Circles project supports marginalised refugee and newly arrived migrant communities in Colindale—particularly Afghan, Ukrainian, and other displaced groups—through safe, community‑led spaces to explore digital safety, data rights, and the impact of technology on daily life. Building on strong local partnerships, participants gain practical skills, confidence, and ownership by co‑designing resources like Digital Confidence Cards. The project strengthens community capacity and contributes to a wider vision of tech justice and digitally confident, empowered local communities.
Rooted & Arriving - Community Stories from Colindale
Rooted & Arriving - Community Stories from Colindale
Colindale North Creatives is a grassroots community arts collective running free creative sessions in the Grahame Park area since May 2025.
Rooted & Arriving is their new community storytelling project, supported by artsdepot’s In Our Hands Fund. Through free, tutored creative sessions in Colindale, residents will use drawing, painting, and mixed media to tell personal stories about their neighbourhood – where they came from, what they love, what they wish others knew. The resulting artworks and written contributions will be compiled into a free community zine, distributed across local libraries, GP surgeries, and community centres, and publicly launched at Art in the Park – Colindale North Creatives’ annual community festival at the Energy Garden – on 27 June 2026.
Sunday Morning Resident Walks
Sunday Morning Resident Walks
This project supports community walks led by a Colindale‑based physiotherapist and sports therapist, currently undertaking neurodiversity training. The walks will run on Sunday mornings from Montrose Park to Brews & Views Café, creating an accessible, social, and health‑focused activity for residents of Colindale and Hendon.
Designed to strengthen local connection and reduce isolation, the project will also explore how structured walking, gentle mindfulness, and peer interaction can better support neurodiverse participants.
Womens Menopause Health Circle in West Hendon, Burnt Oak and Colindale
Womens Menopause Health Circle in West Hendon, Burnt Oak and Colindale
The Women’s Health Circle is a lived-experience-led community project delivering six sessions over six months from June 2026 for women aged 18+ and anyone wishing to learn about menstruation and menopause.
Inspired by the organiser’s own experience of struggling in silence through periods and perimenopause, the project creates safe, confidential spaces in Burnt Oak, Colindale and West Hendon for open conversation, shared learning and peer support. Through creative workshops, practical information and community-led discussion, participants will build confidence, reduce isolation, challenge stigma and improve understanding of women’s health, while shaping a more inclusive and culturally sensitive local support network.
Women's Wellness Week with the Karma Mama
Women's Wellness Week with the Karma Mama
This project is a three‑evening International Women’s Week wellbeing programme delivered in West Hendon, a low‑income, highly diverse neighbourhood home to Afghan, Somali, Ugandan Asian and other resettled and migrant communities.
Responding to women’s requests for safe, accessible, women‑only spaces, the programme offers non‑clinical, culturally sensitive sessions focused on wellbeing, connection, and creative expression. Each two‑hour evening combines facilitated activity with informal social time.
Evening 1: Movement & Restoration
Begin your journey with a calming session dedicated to stress reduction and hormonal balance. Experience gentle yoga, restorative breathwork to calm your nervous system, and a soothing sound bath.
Evening 2: Wellbeing & Menopause Awareness
Join us for an empowering, holistic session focused on menopause wellness. We’ll share practical self-care strategies and menopause-focused breathwork with a connective healing circle.
Evening 3: Creative Empowerment
Celebrate the women who inspire you through art. This expressive finale uses mixed media to honour influential figures, offering an uplifting close to our week together with snacks and refreshments.
