Empowering Southwark’s Charities and Community Groups to Thrive
CIC caught up with Anood Al-Samerai, CEO of Community Southwark, a cornerstone of the 3rd sector in Southwark, to chat about how they support their 1000 strong membership of charities from grassroots groups to national organisations.
Community Southwark CEO, Anood Al-Samerai
Community Southwark has long been a lifeline for the borough’s charities and community groups, offering the kind of tailored support that helps organisations thrive. With over 60 years of history, the organisation provides advice, training, and vital connections that empower its members to create meaningful change. Chief Executive Anood Al-Samerai describes their mission succinctly: “We support Southwark’s charities and community groups to be more impactful and sustainable, and we try to influence the system to ensure their value is recognised and that communities in Southwark are able to thrive.”
“‘’PECKHAM HAS SEEN SO MUCH CHANGE IN RECENT YEARS, AND ACTUALLY TO HAVE PEOPLE WHO GENUINELY WANT TO USE SOME OF THAT CHANGE AND INVOLVEMENT FROM CREATIVES IN A WAY THAT REALLY ADDS TO WHAT’S ALREADY BRILLIANT ABOUT THE AREA, FEELS REALLY QUITE SPECIAL.’’”
With around 1,000 member organisations, Community Southwark serves an incredibly diverse range of groups—from grassroots initiatives with no bank accounts to large charities with national profiles. The needs of these groups vary widely, but Community Southwark works tirelessly to provide resources, training, and advocacy to help them meet their goals. “It’s about making connections, sharing challenges, and creating opportunities,” Anood explains. “Just bringing people together can make a huge difference.”
One of the organisation’s biggest achievements in recent years has been helping secure over £400,000 in funding for its members through hands-on support with grant applications. “You might be brilliant at running a youth project but not necessarily at writing a funding application,” Anood says. “That’s where we come in—offering direct support to make sure the incredible work of these organisations can continue.” They also focus on critical issues like access to space, a growing challenge in the borough as land values rise.
In addition to funding and advocacy, Community Southwark fosters collaboration through its network-building efforts. Whether it’s connecting a group focused on ethnic minorities and diabetes with a funder or helping organisations share resources, the team ensures that no group has to face challenges alone. One standout story is that of the Neurodiversity Family Hub, a recently formed organisation that Community Southwark supported with governance and safeguarding. Reflecting on this work, Anood shares, “They told us in our member survey that they wouldn’t have existed without our support. That’s incredibly rewarding to hear.”
While Community Southwark excels at helping others, the organisation faced its own challenges, particularly in communicating the breadth of its services. “A few years ago, we had someone dedicated to comms, but due to funding constraints, we had to make the role redundant,” Anood says. “It became increasingly clear that without centralised comms support, it was hard to communicate the breadth of what we offer—not just to our members but also to the wider public.”
This was particularly evident in the organisation’s website, which lacked clarity and accessibility. Recognising this as a barrier, Community Southwark turned to Creative Impact Club for help. Through the Impact Awards, they were paired with Jas Deogan, a UX (user experience) expert, who conducted a comprehensive audit of the website. The aim was to identify areas of improvement and ensure the site better served both members and the wider community.
Working with Jas was a transformative experience for the team. “We were really impressed with how quickly Jas picked up what he needed to understand about the organisation and what we needed to fix,” Anood says. “It can be difficult to explain everything we do, but he got to the heart of it very quickly.” Jas’s collaborative approach also resonated with the team. “His whole process was inclusive—he engaged with our members to gather their feedback, ensuring their voices, including those from non-English speaking backgrounds, were central to the project.”
The project didn’t just identify technical fixes; it also reinforced the organisation’s values. “I think the value of what you offer is that kind of really specialist experience, but also understanding how community groups and charities operate, and that there is a lot of difference in those two, but also there's a lot of common ground,” Anood reflects. “I also just think you have brilliant values, like you really, really care. You're not there to tell people how to operate. You're there to really listen and evolve and learn from as well. And I think that that's been really lovely to see.”
Anood also praised Creative Impact Club for its connection to Peckham, where the organisation is based. “Peckham has seen so much change in recent years, and actually to have people who genuinely want to use some of that change and involvement from creatives in a way that really adds to what's already brilliant about the area, feels really quite special,” she says. “We’ve been very lucky to have you in the borough, and it makes us realise how much I want to make sure that we support you to support all our members and really share that benefit.”
The outputs of the project included clear, actionable recommendations to improve the website’s usability and accessibility. Jas worked closely with Community Southwark’s digital partners to ensure the solutions were realistic and achievable. “Sometimes businesses give fancy strategies that no one has the capacity to implement,” Anood notes. “What we got from Jas was something solid and actionable, grounded in the reality of how we work.”
Reflecting on the collaboration, Anood highlights the confidence it gave her team. “Sometimes you need an outside expert to reaffirm what your team has been advocating for,” she says. “This project gave us evidence to back up what we were already thinking, and that’s been incredibly empowering.”
When asked if she’d recommend Creative Impact Club to others, Anood doesn’t hesitate. “We already have recommended them! The value CIC brings is immense. You provide specialist expertise but also really understand how charities and community groups operate. And on top of that, you genuinely care about making a difference.”
The partnership between Community Southwark and Creative Impact Club is a shining example of how collaboration can amplify impact. By combining Community Southwark’s deep local knowledge with Creative Impact Club’s creative expertise, the project not only improved a website but also strengthened the organisation’s ability to serve its members. “It was more helpful than we ever could have hoped,” Anood says. “We’re incredibly grateful for the support.”
Community Southwark is the umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector in Southwark. With a membership over over 1,000 voluntary and community group members, they offer advice and training, networks, tailored support, information sharing and the advertising and matching of volunteers, including Healthwatch Ambassadors and corporate volunteers.
Website: www.communitysouthwark.org