Capacity Building and Family Work on the Moorlands Estate

Community Healing Collective (CHC) places holistic wellbeing at the heart of our work with families and communities affected by violence. We walk alongside parents, siblings, and extended kin as they navigate tragedy and transition. We are seeking £50,000 to continue to bring CHC’s proven Therapeutic Key-working Model to the heart of Brixton.

The families we are currently working with, have been identified as some of Lambeth's most high-risk households, with many of their children, young people and young adults, being involved in entrenched cycles of violence, maladaptive habits, self-destructive patterns of behaviour and deteriorating mental health. They have been historically resistant to engagement with services and are disproportionately represented across statutory systems. These families are impacted by community violence, both as victims and, in some cases, as perpetrators. Many are living with the effects of deep social and economic deprivation, compounded by experiences of racism.

Working from Brixton Soup Kitchen since January 2025, we have intentionally engaged with 22 young adults, aged 16-30 years, their families and the networks around them from the Moorlands Estate. This includes carrying out specialist work with boys and men, women and girls, parent and carers and the local community. Building support and connections where communities, families and individuals affected by trauma, interpersonal violence, or hardship can heal and rebuild together. 

We will deliver a range of: 

• Recovery Interventions to support the healing and growth of individuals and families  
• Re-ablement Interventions for those whose lives have been derailed by the impact of institutionalisation or historic social deprivation 
• Whole Family Work to support bereaved parents and family members of young people whose lives have been lost to violence, helping them to process grief, rebuild strength, and rediscover purpose. 
• Community Interventions through the creation of spaces that nurture relationships, reflection, and collective growth.    

This project is designed with and for the Moorlands Estate, focusing on: 

• Black African, Black Caribbean and Mixed Black heritage individuals 
• Young adults 16-35 
• Young people in care and transitioning into independence  
• Low-income families   
• Those experiencing multiple, complex challenges linked to health, homelessness, unemployment, substance misuse, and criminality  

The difference this project will make is that it will provide:  

• Space to understand and develop positive relationships  
• Space to explore and create other pathways in life 
• Space to explore choices and values 
• Space to address grief and bereavement 
• Space to find purpose and direction 
• Support to explore and create community  

 This fund will make a difference to the community as it will:

 Directly strengthen our capacity to deliver free, accessible, high-quality wellbeing and recovery interventions for families on the Moorlands Estate. It will allow us to deepen our impact, restore connection, nurture wellbeing, and reclaim wholeness across generations. It will help to create a model of community healing that can be replicated across Brixton and beyond.

 This project will succeed because:

CHC have become a familiar, consistent and trusted presence in the community, providing a first response to incidents, critical moments, and times of remembrance. We have established trusting relationships with members accessing our support, all of whom have self-referred independently. We are successfully delivering culturally competent mental health and wellbeing support where statutory services often struggle to engage. We are developing the Community Workforce so that the work is done in co-production with members of the community and we have already recruited and support young adults who work as an interface with the wider community on the estate, engage in a community real-search regarding the needs of families and help to develop the work. We are also providing training to co-producers and local partners, in recognising and understanding the social and psychological needs of community members. All of which upskills and strengthens the communities capacity to continue to support and heal each other in years to come.