Summary
For 20 years, City Bridge Foundation’s partnership with the Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE) has played an important role in advancing accessibility and inclusion across London. Through CAE's Access and Sustainability Advice Service, London-based charities and not-for-profit organisations are supported to remove barriers and redesign spaces that truly consider the needs of everyone, including disabled and older people.
We’re proud to have worked in partnership with City Bridge Foundation (CBF) to support London’s voluntary and community sector through our Access and Sustainability Advice Service (ASAS)
ASAS was established in 2005 to address a clear gap: many small and medium sized charities did not have the technical knowledge, funding, or confidence to improve accessibility in their buildings and the services they provide.
As the funder of ASAS, City Bridge Foundation (CBF) has played a vital role in shaping both the existence and evolution of the service. CBF is London’s largest independent charity funder, with a history spanning over 900 years. Its funding priorities focus on inclusion, equity and better access for service users and directly informed the scope and emphasis of ASAS over the past two decades.
“For 20 years, our partnership with the Centre for Accessible Environments has played an important role in advancing accessibility and inclusion across London,” said CBF Funding Manager Bara’ah Aissaoui. “Through ASAS, London-based charities and not-for-profit organisations are supported to remove barriers and redesign spaces that truly consider the needs of everyone, including disabled and older people. The impact has been genuinely transformative and we are pleased to mark two decades of partnership and progress towards a more inclusive and accessible city.
Inclusion and access
James Creighton-Goode, Administrator at East London’s Immediate Theatre, which reached out to ASAS for advice, said: “One of our core values is centered around inclusivity and making sure everyone can access our facilities. The best thing about our ASAS session was that we got a clear, expert view on how we could make our office space more accessible and welcoming for everyone.”
By funding ASAS, CBF played a pivotal part in ensuring that London’s charities could access expertise that would otherwise have been out of reach.
Clean Break Theatre Company in Camden benefitted from such expertise. Operations Manager, Alice Dryden, said: “The service helped us understand our current gaps and prioritise adjustments, from clearer signage and furniture layouts to inclusive communications and entry protocols.
“We’ve heard from guests that the clearer signage and mindful layout have helped reduce anxiety when arriving, especially for first-time visitors. There is now a wider awareness and shared responsibility among staff and freelancers around accessibility and inclusive practice.”
Advice from experts
ASAS service was built on a rock-bed of access expertise thanks to its unique position with CAE. For over two decades, the ASAS Advisor role (latterly provided by Asa Hems) supported charities with tailored, technical advice to help them understand accessibility requirements, interpret audits, and plan appropriate improvements to their buildings and services.
“Having expert advice specific to our context gave us a clear path to move forward with changes – both big and small – that align with Clean Break Theatre’s values and operational goals. It helped us make access a more visible and embedded part of our planning, especially for events,” Alice added.
The service also played a key role in helping organisations to apply for CBF’s access audit grants and capital funding. This meant that charities were able to identify barriers to access for their service users and secure the necessary funding to deliver much needed improvements.
Educational process
In its 20-year existence, ASAS and its advisors have supported hundreds of organisations across every London borough. It provided free, invaluable online and in person training sessions, on managing access and inclusion, for charities and not-for-profit community groups across London, covering:
- The Equality Act
- Access requirements
- Making adaptations to existing buildings to improve access
- Funding opportunities for London based charities.
Celine Luppo McDaid, Director of charity Dr Johnson’s House – an accredited museum based in the Grade I listed house where eighteenth century literary great Samuel Johnson lived – said: “Working with CAE and ASAS has been an educational process and has led to greater awareness of access considerations and challenges within a historic house, and throughout the organisation.”
While ASAS no longer has a dedicated advisor the impact of the advice it provided over two decades has resonated across London.
Building awareness and knowledge
A combination of technical advice, support with access audits and capital grant applications from the ASAS Advisor meant that organisations could put in place improvements that would be beneficial for a wide variety of service users from disabled people to parents with toddlers.
Access audits, funded capital works projects, and practical changes across community buildings, cultural venues, and local services all formed part of that process, which Discover Children’s Story Centre benefitted from.
CEO Rebekah Polding said: “The service from ASAS and our access audit gave us an understanding of what needed improvement. We were able to use the knowledge gained from the audit for future projects to ensure we can keep to our principal of growing accessibility.”
Following their audit, the centre upgraded a bathroom with a submarine theme, and ensured all users can access the communal wash and play areas, including the submarine’s control console.
Commitment to accessibility
ASAS adapted over the years to meet demand. As well as providing advice, site visits and training, the service gave practical guidance through blogs and articles, focusing on low-cost, achievable improvements.
ASAS has always strived to reflect the reality of life for third sector organisations, whereby many charities are operating with limited resources, but still need to improve access for the communities they serve. Thanks to the service, and funding and grants, there are more accessible buildings, better access to services, and organisations that are welcoming more disabled and older people as service users and staff.
Our partnership with CBF demonstrates that a strategic approach to funding access is needed; one that recognises that sustainable inclusion requires not only capital investment, but also knowledge, confidence and long-term sector development.
We hope that, moving forward, the partnership’s work will reverberate across the country driving a commitment to accessibility across all voluntary and charitable organisations, and others who will learn from early trailblazers like Immediate Theatre, Dr Johnson’s House, Clean Break Theatre Company and Discover Children’s Story Centre.
CAE remains committed to supporting the sector by sharing knowledge and providing advice and expertise. With that in mind, we’re already discussing and planning the next steps towards an accessible and inclusive future for charities and voluntary organisations across the whole country. Watch this space.